Larry Collins RIP and other recent deaths

It's time to catch up on some recent music deaths. The latest is rockabilly guitarist Larry Collins at the age of 79. Originally from Tulsa, he was just eight when he began playing with his older sister Lorrie as the Collins Kids, appearing on US TV programmes such as 'Town Hall Party' and 'Tex Ritter's Ranch Party'. Together they recorded numerous records including 'Hop Skip and Jump', 'Whistle Bait' and 'Beetle Bug Bop' way back in 1957 and 1958. Larry said: 'We were apprentice to the best. Bob Willis, Johnny Horton, Lefty Frizzell and Johnny Cash.' His mentor was guitarist Joe Maphis and like him Larry played a double neck guitar. 'Joe Maphis was 'king of the strings' and back-stage I learned to finger-pick watching Merle Travis', Larry said. The Collins Kids stopped playing together in the mid sixties but reunited in 1993 to play at the Hemsby festival in the UK. I saw them at the Ponderosa Stomp in 2008 (pictured below) and Larry appeared solo at Viva Las Vegas in 2017 where he was on stage with Deke Dickerson and Ashley Kingman, both of whom also played double neck guitars. I wrote at the time: 'Highlight of this segment was Larry Collins, once a child star in the Collins Kids, who came on stage with a double neck guitar, as did Deke Dickerson and the house band's Ashley Kingman. Larry showed that he's an excellent guitarist with dramatic flourishes which created a moody sound. Numbers included the death song '1955' and the Bo Diddley flavoured 'Hoy Hoy', when he was joined by Ruby Ann. He ended with 'Rockabilly Forever'. For a superb tribute to Larry I suggest you seek out Deke's recent Facebook item.

Here's a photo of Larry with Deke and Ashley, and another with Deke.

Another recent death is that of Red Paden, owner of Red's juke joint. Red's in something of an institution in the capital of the blues, Clarksdale, MS , and despite being frequented by many blues fans from out of town it remains a genuine juke joint, with great blues, basic facilities and twinkly Christmas lights. I first went there in 2005 when I drove down from Memphis with Alan Lloyd and Ken Major to catch Pinetop Perkins at the Hopson Plantation (he didn't perform as it was a Sunday!). In the evening we went to Red's where Bob Stroger was playing. I've been many times on subsequent visits and the photo shows local blues man Lucious Spiller in 2017. I can only hope that Red's survives and is still operating when I visit Clarksdale later this year. The second photo shows Red at a synmposium on juke joints at the King Biscuit Festival in 2015.

Another recent death at the age of 88 is soul/jazz pianist and vocalist Les McCann. Also David Soul, aged 80, who was one half of Starsky and Hutch and who had huge pop hits in 1977 with 'Don't Give Up On Us' and 'Silver Lady'. RIP to them all.