Adam Wade RIP

There have been mercifully few significant music deaths lately but one that did catch my notice this week is that of Adam Wade, at the age of 87. Adam was born in Pittsburg and had a soft voice in the mould of Nat King Cole or Johnny Mathis. He signed with the Coed label and had his first success in 1960 with 'Ruby'. In 1961 he had three top ten US hits - 'Take Good Care Of Her', 'As If I Didn't Know' and 'The Writing On The Wall'. He had little success in the UK apart from 'Take Good Care Of Her' which reached number 38 but several singles were released of both his Coed material and later Epic recordings and two LPs were released - 'Adam and Evening' and 'One Is A Lonely Number', plus two EPs. In 1975 Adam became the first African American to host a US TV game show ('Musical Chairs') and appeared regularly on stage in musicals and in TV sitcoms such as 'Sandford and Sons'and the Jeffersons'.

Another recent death is that of Peter B Lowry, a folklorist and record producer who specialised in the Piedmont blues originating from Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. He founded the Trix record label which released albums by David 'Honey Boy' Edwards, Eddie Kirkland and Robert Lockwood Jr among others. He was also an early contributor to magazines such as 'Living Blues'and 'Blues Unlimited' and produced reissue series such as the Atlantic blues series.