GEORGE "Possum" JONES

George Jones, the definitive country singer of the last half-century, died Friday at a hospital in Nashville. He was 81.  New York Times obituary.

Below is from the best, most poignant and heartfelt of obituaries I have found, USA Today:

NASHVILLE - George Jones, whose supple Texas voice conveyed heartbreak so profound that he became perhaps the most imitated singer in country music, died Friday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center after being hospitalized April 18 with irregular blood pressure. He was 81.

Hank Williams may have set country music's mythology and Johnny Cash its attitude, but Jones gave the genre its ultimate voice. With recordings that spanned 50 years, including No. 1 singles White Lightning, She Thinks I Still Care and He Stopped Loving Her Today, Jones influenced generations of country singers and was considered by many to be the greatest of them all.

Ultimately, though, it was that voice that won Jones two Grammys, got him into the Country Music Hall of Fame and made him an American musical icon. That plaintive voice that seemed to break down at will and wallow in sorrow. That voice of honky-tonk eloquence that held tortured echoes of heroes like Williams, Roy Acuff and Lefty Frizzell. That finely nuanced voice that offered thrill rides of emotions, with twists and turns, slippery, bending notes and sudden drops.

Jones' performances weren't just an emotional rollercoaster, they were the whole theme park.
...
Jones' greatest artistic achievement came with Sherrill, his regular producer for much of the 1970s and '80s. Sherrill, an admirer of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" musical architecture, constructed his own masterpieces using Jones' voice as scaffolding. Instead of competing with the singer's dramatic delivery, Sherrill complemented it with vocal choruses, theatrical string sections and tensile pedal steel guitar lines. Sherrill's lavish productions didn't bury Jones, they revealed previously unheard subtleties of expression.

The pair reached their peak with the 1980 release of He Stopped Loving Her Today, widely considered to be the greatest country record ever made and one that, according to many involved with its creation, took more than a year to get on tape because Jones was so wrecked by cocaine and bourbon.

http://youtu.be/T4IP3tLsecQ


"He said I'll love you 'til I die/She told him you'll forget in time," Jones sang as he began the Bobby Braddock/Curly Putman tune, needing only three minutes and 15 seconds to convey a lifetime of emotional devastation, the kind that takes hold of a man and doesn't let go, not ever.

 "Now, that voice has gone silent. They may lay a wreath upon his door. Soon, they'll carry him away. But we will not stop loving him today."  Read more at source

And yet at this time he recorded perhaps his greatest song, 1980's "He Stopped Loving Her Today," the tale of a man who continued pining for his lost love many years after she left him. The song, written by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putnam, has been voted the greatest country song of all time in a Country Music Magazine poll.

"He had a voice that was the truth, raw and unfiltered," Kenny Chesney, who opened the 1995 George Jones/Tammy Wynette reunion tour, said in a statement. "You can't get any realer, any more tortured or any more alive. No one can do what George Jones does, and that's why 50 years later, he still stands out as one of the greatest singers in any genre of all time."

Personal comments: I truly was fortunate to grow up in the heart of the blues/rock/country era in Memphis, TN and the Mississippi Delta, and then spent the better part of the Sixties and Seventies in Texas.   I saw George in person at Fort Worth's Panther Hall in the early 1960s, as he was emerging to be the epitome country singer. This was an "all-day, beer-drinking" marathon of country music, and I fell in love so much with the genre that I went back the following day for another dose! It was magical! Hank Thompson and the Brazos Valley Boys, Ernest Tubb, Leroy Van Dyke ("Walk On By"), Willie Nelson (clean shaven!), Country Charlie Pride, Gentleman Jim Reeves, Carl Perkins, Webb Pierce. Even though Rock 'n' Roll was always blaring on the jukeboxes, there were always signature songs by George Jones, like "The Race Is On" mixed in.    At that time, Ray Charles' "Country" album had just come out, and everyone was "country" it seemed! 

http://youtu.be/9-hBAwaH6CI