Obituaries: ​Country Hitmaker Brett James, Rock Hall of Famer Sonny Curtis

Brett James (Cornelius), a Grammy-winning country songwriter, singer and record producer, died on Sept. 18 when the small plane he was piloting crashed in North Carolina. He was 57.

James' wife and her daughter were also killed in the crash.

A Billboard obituary reports that the Missouri-born James "had initially intended to pursue a career in medicine, but he followed his heart and left medical school for the music industry. He signed with Arista Nashville’s imprint Career Records as a solo artist, and released a solo album in 1995."

James had three singles chart and released a self-titled debut album that year, but in 1998, he was dropped from his recording and publishing deals and came close to returning to medical school.

He did persist with music, returning to Arista as a recording artist. In 2002, he released two more largely unsuccessful singles, and in 2020, he released his first self-written artist collection in over 20 years, I Am Now.

Billboard notes that "James would become a behind-the-scenes star. Early on, he wrote for Billy Ray Cyrus, Kenny Chesney and Martina McBride, and in 2001 landed his first No. 1 with “Who I Am” by Jessica Andrews."

His biggest hit co-composition was Carrie Underwood's 2006 number-one hit "Jesus, Take the Wheel," which received Grammy Awards for best country song and best female country vocal performance.

In a profile of 13 hit songs written by Brett James, Billboard calls it "a faith-filled song about placing hope in a higher power. The song’s powerful melody and message, paired with Underwood’s crystalline voice, made musical magic. Written by James, Hillary Lindsey and Gordie Sampson, 'Jesus, Take The Wheel' spent six weeks at the pinnacle of the Hot Country Songs chart in 2006."

The song captured two Grammy nominations, winning for best country song. It also won the ACM single of the year, the ASCAP country song of the year and NSAI Song of the Year.

Cape Breton singer/songwriter Gordie Sampson has stated that the song was inspired by the death of an acquaintance in a car accident on a highway in Nova Scotia two years earlier.

Sampson has said the success of the song "worked wonders for my music career," and he has gone on to have his songs recorded by Faith Hill, Keith Urban, Trace Adkins, LeAnn Rimes, Martina McBride, Willie Nelson, Bon Jovi, Serena Ryder, Tenille Townes, Scott Helman and many more.

Brett James' writer's credits include major hits (many No. 1s) for Jessica Andrews, Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill, Kelly Clarkson, Luke Bryan, Uncle Kracker, Keith Urban, Rodney Atkins, Rascal Flatts, Jason Aldean, Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi and Scotty McCreery.

His compositions have been featured on over 500 recordings by a wide variety of artists. They are included on albums with combined sales of more than 110 million copies, according to his Grand Ole Opry biography online.

His No. 1 hits include "Cowboy Casanova" by Underwood, "Out Last Night" by Chesney, "Blessed" by McBride, "When the Sun Goes Down" by Chesney and Uncle Kracker, Summer Nights by Rascal Flatts, Jason Aldean's "The Truth" and Chris Young's "The Man I Want to Be."

In 2008, James began working as a record producer with his production credits including Gracin's We Weren't Crazy, Kristy Lee Cook's Why Wait, a re-release of Taylor Swift's self-titled debut album, Jessica Simpson's Do You Know and Kip Moore's Up All Night.

James was twice named ASCAP country songwriter of the year, in 2006 and 2010, and he entered the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame of 2020.

Country stars are paying tribute to Brett James.

On X, Jason Aldean posted this on X: ""Heartbroken to hear of the loss of my friend Brett James tonight. I had nothing but love and respect for that guy and he helped change my life. Honoured to have met him and worked with him."

MusicRow.com posted that "Beyond his professional accomplishments, James was a fixture in the Nashville music community. He frequently played songwriter rounds, mentored younger writers, educated the public about the challenges facing professional songwriters and devoted his time to industry organizations and charity events. Friends and colleagues often described him as generous with his talent and knowledge, always eager to lift up the next generation."

When contacted by Billboard Canada, Canadian singer-songwriter Gordie Sampson, a close friend as well as a professional colleague, offered us this loving and eloquent tribute: "Brett was so much more than a songwriter, he was a Renaissance man. He just had a presence when he walked into the room, movie-star like, somewhere between Tom Cruise and Jason Bateman for me.

"Songwriting-wise, he was the gentle giant. People blessed with this kind of talent can sometimes be intimidating in co-writing situations, but he was famous for being otherwise – making you feel confident, making you love yourself so that the song could write itself when it arrived.

"Then when you finished it and he sang the demo of it, it wasn’t uncommon for him to sing it in one take. His voice was weathered and golden all at once.

"He was the slightly older/much more established power writer that took a chance on a little folkie from Nova Scotia somewhere back around 2002 and our friendship grew steady – the two of us becoming part of a group of 5 or 6 friends that have retained an unshakable bond to this day.

"His passing has frozen me and indeed all of us. Since he left I’ve been working on a list of ways I’ll miss him but I’m already running out of paper.”

Sonny Curtis, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who penned the classic "I Fought the Law" and The Mary Tyler Moore show theme, died on Sept. 19, at age 88.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Buddy Holly's band The Crickets in 2012, and was also a prolific and very successful songwriter.

In its obituary, Associated Press terms Curtis "a vintage rock ‘n’ roller who wrote the raw classic ''I Fought the Law' and posed the enduring question “Who can turn the world on with her smile?” as the writer-crooner of the theme song to The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

"Curtis wrote or co-wrote hundreds of songs, from Keith Whitley’s country smash 'I’m No Stranger to the Rain ( the Country Music Association’s 1989 Single of the Year) to The Everly Brothers’ 'Walk Right Back,' a personal favourite Curtis completed while in Army basic training. Bing Crosby, Glen Campbell, Bruce Springsteen and the Grateful Dead were among other artists who covered his work.

"Born during the Great Depression to cotton farmers outside of Meadow, Texas, Curtis was a childhood friend of Buddy Holly’s and an active musician in the formative years of rock, whether jamming on guitar with Holly in the mid-1950s or opening for Elvis Presley when Elvis was still a regional act. Curtis’ songwriting touch also soon emerged: Before he turned 20, he had written the hit 'Someday' for Webb Pierce and 'Rock Around With Ollie Vee' for Holly.

"Curtis had left Holly’s group, the Crickets, before Holly became a major star. But he returned after Holly died in a plane crash in 1959 and he was featured the following year on the album In Style with the Crickets, which included 'I Fought the Law' (dashed off in a single afternoon, according to Curtis, who would say he had no direct inspiration for the song) and the Jerry Allison collaboration 'More Than I Can Say,' a hit for Bobby Vee, and later for Leo Sayer.

Meanwhile, it took until 1966 for “I Fought the Law” only became a Top 10 hit in 1966, thanks to a now-legendary cover by The Texas-based Bobby Fuller Four. Over the following decades, it was covered by dozens of artists, from punk (the Clash) to country (Johnny Cash, Nanci Griffith) to Springsteen, Tom Petty and other mainstream rock stars. "It’s my most important copyright,” Curtis told The Tennessean in 2014.

Curtis’ other signature song was created in 1970. He was writing commercial jingles when he came up with the theme for a new CBS sitcom starring Moore as a single woman hired as a TV producer in Minneapolis. He called the song “Love is All Around,” and, AP says, "he used a smooth melody to eventually serve up lyrics as indelible as any in television history. The producers had wanted Andy Williams to sing the theme song, but he turned it down and Curtis’ easygoing baritone was heard instead."

In tribute, other artists began recording it, including Sammy Davis Jr., Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and Hüsker Dü. A commercial release featuring Curtis came out in 1980 and was a modest success, peaking at No. 29 on Billboard’s country chart.

Curtis made a handful of solo albums, including Sonny Curtis and Spectrum, and hit the country Top 20 with the 1981 single “Good Ol’ Girls.” In later years, he continued to play with Allison and other members of the Crickets. The band released several albums, among them The Crickets and Their Buddies, featuring appearances by Eric Clapton, Graham Nash and Phil Everly.

One of Curtis’ more notable songs was “The Real Buddy Holly Story,” a rebuke to the 1978 biopic The Buddy Holly Story, which starred Gary Busey.

Curtis was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1991 and, as part of the Crickets, into Nashville’s Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007. Five years later, he and the Crickets were inducted into the Rock Hall, praised as “the blueprint for rock and roll bands (that) inspired thousands of kids to start up garage bands around the world."

Bobby Hart (born Robert Luke Harshman), co-writer of such Monkees hits as "Last Train to Clarksville," has died, aged 86.

The Associated Press writes in an obituary that "Hart, a key part of the Monkees’ multimedia empire, teamed with Tommy Boyce, died at his home in Los Angeles, according to his friend and co-author Glenn Ballantyne. He had been in poor health since breaking his hip last year."

AP states that "Tommy Boyce [who died in 1994] and Hart were a prolific and successful team in the mid-1960s, especially for the Monkees, the made-for-television group promoted by Don Kirshner. They wrote the Monkees’ theme song, with its opening shot, 'Here we come, walkin’ down the street,' and enduring chant, 'Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees, and their first No 1 hit, 'Last Train to Clarksville.' The Monkees’ eponymous, million-selling debut album included six songs from Boyce and Hart, who also served as producers and used their own backing musicians, the Candy Store Prophets, as session players."

“'I always credit them not only with writing many of our biggest hits, but, as producers, being instrumental in creating the unique Monkee sound we all know and love,' the Monkees’ Micky Dolenz wrote in a foreword to Hart’s memoir, Psychedelic Bubble Gum, published in 2015.

"As Boyce and Hart grew in fame and the Monkees took more control of their work, they pursued their own careers, releasing the albums Test Patterns and I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonite? and appearing on such sitcoms as I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched.

"Their other songs included the Monkees’ melancholy 'I Wanna Be Free' and the theme to the daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives. They were covered by everyone from Dean Martin ('Little Lovely One') to the Sex Pistols (('I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone').

"In the 1970s and '80s, Hart managed several hits with other collaborators and even contributed material to another TV act, the Partridge Family. He worked with Austin Roberts on 'Over You,' an Oscar-nominated ballad performed by Betty Buckley in Tender Mercies, and with Dick Eastman on 'My Secret (Didja Gitit Yet?)'for New Edition. He and Boyce toured with Dolenz and fellow Monkee Davy Jones in the '70s, put out the album Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart and received renewed attention when the Monkees enjoyed a comeback in the 1980s.

"Hart, a minister’s son, was born in Phoenix, Arizona. After graduating from high school and serving in the army reserves, he settled in Los Angeles in the late 1950s, hoping first to become a disc jockey, but soon working as a songwriter and session musician. His name shortened to Bobby Hart, he toured as a member of Teddy Randazzo & the Dazzlers, and with Randazzo and Bobby Weinstein wrote 'Hurt So Bad,' a hit for Little Anthony and the Imperials later covered by Linda Ronstadt.

"He also befriended Boyce, a singer and songwriter from Charlottesville, Virginia, with a 'very unusual personality, spontaneous and extroverted, yet very cool at the same time.' Boyce and Hart helped write the top 10 hit 'Come A Little Bit Closer' for Jay & the Americans and were a strong enough combination that Kirshner recruited them for his Screen Gems songwriting factory: they were assigned to the Monkees. Asked to come up with songs for a quartet openly modeled on the Beatles, they devised a twangy guitar line similar to the one for 'Paperback Writer' and wrote 'Last Train to Clarksville,' a chart topper in 1966. When Kirshner suggested a song with a girl’s name in the title, they turned out 'Valleri' and reached the top five."

Hermeto Pascoal, the innovative Brazilian composer and musician famed for his blend of jazz and traditional music, has died at the age of 89. His passing was reported by his family on Sept. 14, and a cause of death was not given..

An Associated Press obituary notes that "Pascoal, known as The Mad Genius,' was an instantly recognizable figure who created music that defied fixed labels -- blending jazz, samba, Brazilian popular music (MPB), bossa nova, chorinho and forro.

The self taught multi-instrumentalist rose from child poverty to international fame — with Miles Davis calling him the most 'important musician on the planet.'"

"Pascoal wrote more than 2,000 instrumental pieces and continued to arrange music and record artists well into his 80s. The artist was primarily a pianist and flutist, but also played saxophone, guitars, drums, and accordions - and frequently incorporated household objects into his work.

"Aged 10, he began playing at dances and weddings, before going on to play forró and other traditional Brazilian music across the region. In the late 1950s, he moved to Rio de Janeiro and discovered the city's jazz scene, performing in nightclubs and joining a radio orchestra.

"His blend of jazz and traditional folk styles sparked the attention of Brazil's biggest stars in the genre. The singer Elis Regina performed with Pascoal, as did percussionist Airto Moreira. The latter accompanied him on a tour to the US, where he was introduced to Miles Davis. Pascoal played on Davis’ 1971 album Live-Evil.

"But despite earning the respect of luminaries in the jazz world, Pascoal rejected the label as a jazz musician, and said he owed as much to Brazilian music like chorinho and samba."

"Pascoal also used more unconventional objects to produce sounds, including pints of beer, dolls, body parts, tea cups, and — perhaps most famously — live pigs. On his 1977 album Slaves Mass, Pascoal squeezed a piglet to make it squeal for the opening of a track. A photo of him with the animal in his arms appeared on its back cover."

Tributes for Pascoal poured in after the announcement of his death.

“Brazilian music and culture owe a great deal to Hermeto Pascoal,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil said on X. "Pascoal’s “talent and tireless creativity earned him international acclaim and influenced generations of musicians around the world,” he added.

Caetano Veloso said on Instagram that Pascoal is “one of the highest points in the history of music in Brazil.”

On social media, some leading Canadian musicians are reflecting upon their interactions with Pascoal.

On Facebook, Jane Bunnett recalled that "Hermeto came to Toronto for his final time in 2008 for a big band performance at the Art Of Jazz festival in the Distillery District. Jovino Neto Santos conducted and the band was filled with musicians who loved Hermeto and his music.

"He didn't disappoint. He wrote a piece featuring the whole band playing coconuts. He brought a coconut for each band member from Brazil with their initials on them. We still have ours. We will never forget this wonderful week of playing and hosting him... A remarkable man in every way and so very inspiring. We will miss you, Dear Hermeto."

Toronto musician Alastair Kay was part of that performance. On Facebook, he posted that "This was a wonderful band, great music and very challenging! I remember at the rehearsal as we ran through one of the charts, he wrote a new tune, a leadsheet with melody. At the break the rhythm section and a few horns played it. Thank you for your amazing music, Pascoal!"

Famed Toronto jazz saxophonist Pat Labarbera posted that "Regardless of whether he was on melodica, bass, flute, keyboards, singing, singing into a wine glass, playing a tea kettle or telling stories in Portuguese, he always had something to say."

Sidney “Omen” Brown, the acclaimed producer behind tracks for Beyoncé, Drake and Ludacris, died suddenly in New York, at age 49. His body was discovered on Sept. 13, and a cause of death has not been reported.

A Billboard obituary notes that Brown "began making a name for himself in hip-hop around the turn of the century as he aligned with Roc-A-Fella. He earned production credits on Memphis Bleek’s Coming of Age debut as well as Fabolous’ Street Dreams album cuts 'Change You or Change Me' and 'Why Wouldn’t I' in 2003.

"Brown crafted the score behind Roc-A-Fella’s Paper Soldiers movie in 2002, which served as Kevin Hart’s acting debut and saw a cameo from Jay-Z. He produced 'Tell It Like It Is' for Ludacris‘ Release Therapy, which won best rap album at the 2007 Grammy Awards.

"Omen floated into the Young Money orbit when teaming up with Canadian Noah '40' Shebib to produce 'Shut It Down' featuring The-Dream on Drake’s Thank Me Later debut in 2010. He collaborated with Shebib again to co-produce Lil Wayne’s 'I’m Single,' which reached No. 82 on the Billboard Hot 100."

The pair worked on the songwriting and production of Beyoncé’s 2013 hit “Mine,” which also peaked at No. 82 on the Hot 100. Other production credits for Omen included Mya, Redman and Action Bronson.