The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi everyone, some more sad news.

Country music historian Kevin Coffey posted this on one of the Yahoo Newsgroups.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR><SMALL>Wanted to let the group know that Jimmie Widener, the fine vocalist, guitarist & tenor banjo player with Bob Wills, Spade Cooley & others, who cut some great records under his own name, too, died last week.

Also, I've learned that Lefty Nason, the great steel guitarist, died earlier this year.</SMALL><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Lefty of course was a key figure in the early development of the Hank Thompson sound.
Sorry to see these greats go.

Jason, both of these names from the western-swing era are familiar to me but I had not heard of them for years.
Thanks for your post.........Gene

Jason, the last time I saw Jimmy Widener was at PW camp 6 outside of Taejon Korea in 1953. He was with a USO show featuring Jess Willard who had helped me out as a kid in Cal during the 40s.

Hi Gene, C.C. it's sad news, in a week of sad news.
Jimmie was going to be interviewed for the upcoming Spade Cooley bio (C.C. has been interviewed, but is too modest to mention it), but hopefully he did have some input.

Hank Thompson said (direct quote): "Those identifying 'licks' that characterize my music were created by Lefty Nason. He was on my first record session with Capitol and worked in my band during the early years. I recognized the uniqueness of those sounds, particularly on 'Today', and incorporated the use of them from that point forward." He said this in a letter to the editor of The Journal of the American Academy for the Preservation of Old-Time Country Music, Issue #22 (August 1994). Another well-known Thompson tune that Lefty played on was "Humpty-Dumpty Heart".

That's a significant accomplishment, to originate and shape the signature sound of a major artist like Hank Thompson.

Wah-Wah-Wahaa. Woo-oo-ah-wah.

Goodbye Lefty Nason, though you're gone your licks live on. I admit to using them occasionally myself!

Tim R.

Also....."Whoa Sailor".

When I was working with Tex Williams, Jimmy once came down and sat in with the band. He was the "Real Deal"...a humble guy who sang his butt off! It was nice seeing Tex and Jimmy hanging around with each other. They seemed to really enjoy their friendship (and reminiscing about the old days).

Hiya Marty, good to hear from you.
It's time like these that I hope that someone can pull together talents like Jimmy Wyble and Jimmie Rivers and cut some sides on them while they're still picking and happy to do so.
Sorry to see more greats go, but in the case of the Murph CD avaiable through the forum, it's fitting that there's more recent additions to his legacy.