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Renowned country music
songwriter, guitar session player and singer Dave Kirby passed
away at his residence in Branson, Missouri on Saturday, April
17, after a short illness. Kirby was diagnosed with
multimyloma cancer on March 20. He was born in Brady, Texas,
on July 10, 1938. Kirby was influenced by his uncle, legendary
Hank Williams’s front man Big Bill Lister. Lister took Kirby
under his wing and first introduced him to songwriting and
guitar playing at the age of eight.
Kirby moved to Albuquerque,
New Mexico, in 1955. He landed a job at a local radio station
playing country music. He was influenced by the music of Carl
Smith, Mac Wiseman, Ernest Tubb and the guitar playing of
Merle Travis. Buck Owens recorded Kirby’s first song “Down By
the River”. Rose Maddox then cut the same song and shortly
after, Owens and Maddox recorded it as a duet. Johnny and
Jonie Mosby and Porter Wagoner also added their vocals to
Kirby compositions while he was living in New Mexico.
“During the 1960’s, Willie
Nelson used to come out to Albuquerque and he got me to go and
play in the band,” Kirby recalled in a 2000 interview. “Willie
got to liking my songs, and I don’t remember how, but Hank
Cochran got to liking them too. They both wrote me saying
‘Come to Nashville’ so in 1967, I made the big move.”
Kirby signed a writing
contract with Pamper Music, which was owned in part by Ray
Price. Other writers for Pamper at this time included Roger
Miller, Harlan Howard, Nelson and Cochran. “I got a few things
cut and then I wrote “Is Anybody Going To San Antone?” Kirby
said. “It has become my biggest hit, but it just lay there at
the Pamper shelf for three years before it ever got cut.”
Charley Pride heard the song in 1970 and it became a multi
million selling single.
Kirby’s compositions became
hits for a host of entertainers including “Wish I Didn’t Have
To Miss You” by Jack Greene and Jeannie Seely, “April’s Fool”
and “You Wouldn’t Know Love” by Ray Price, “What Have You Got
Planned Tonight Diana?” and “Sidewalks of Chicago” for Merle
Haggard, “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang” for Johnny Cash and
Waylon Jennings, “Memories To Burn” for Gene Watson, “Where
Are You Going Billy Boy?” for Bill Anderson and Mary Lou
Turner, “Leavin’s Been Coming For A Long Long Time” for George
Strait and “I’ll Go To A Stranger” for Johnny Bush.
Ray Charles, Moe Bandy, Norma
Jean, Porter Wagoner, Johnny Russell, Texas Tornadoes, George
Jones, Faron Young, Charley Walker, Johnny Rodriguez, Cal
Smith, John Anderson, Kitty Wells, Razzy Bailey, Jo-El Sonnier,
Curtis Potter, Hank Thompson and dozens more have recorded
Kirby compositions.
Kirby began session work in
Nashville during the early 1970’s. His first session was with
Country Music Hall of Famer Granpa Jones. “Granpa walked in
the studio and looked at me,” Kirby recalled. “I had kind of
long hair and the first thing he said was ‘Son, don’t play any
of those hippie licks on my record’.”
Kirby went on to have a very
successful session career playing lead guitar for Dolly Parton,
Merle Haggard, Janie Fricke, Ringo Star, Emmylou Harris, Don
Williams, Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson, Crystal Gayle, Wynn
Stewart, Ray Price, Moe Bandy, Ronnie Milsap, Connie Smith and
Kenny Price.
Not only a successful
writer and session player, Kirby also contributed many vocal
recordings of his own including “North Alabama” “Cantaloupe
Jones” “The Rumor” “Cowboy Connection” and “Better Off When I
Was Hungry.” Kirby recorded for Boone, Capitol, Dimension and
Monument Records. Dot Records released his album “Writer,
Singer, Picker” in 1973.
Kirby married country music
entertainer Leona Williams in 1985. The two entertained
together throughout the country while still maintaining a
heavy writing schedule and session work.
“Dave Kirby never realized his
importance in the country music community,” Brady, Texas, disc
jockey Tracy Pitcox said. “Dave played on virtually all of the
sessions leaving Nashville throughout the 1970’s and into the
1980’s. His songwriting is legendary. We were very honored to
recognize Dave in his hometown for the last eight years during
our ‘Dave Kirby Celebration’.”
Kirby just completed work on
his first solo album in twenty years. “Mr. Songwriter”
contains ten of Kirby’s biggest writing successes and was
released on Heart of Texas Records on May 15, 2004.
Survivors include his wife
Leona Williams, four sons Wade and Paul Kirby and Ron and
Brady Williams, two daughters Janice Ross and Kathy Lee and
ten grandchildren.
Tracy Pitcox
Heart of Texas Records
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