Billy Edd Wheeler, legendary songwriter, passed away
He lived in Swannanoa, NC, and passed just a few days before the area was devastated by Helene.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/21/arts/music/billy-edd-wheeler-dead.html
"His plain-spoken songs were recorded by Elvis Presley, Kenny Rogers and many others. The duo of Johnny Cash and June Carter made his “Jackson” a huge country hit.
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Maybe more typical of Mr. Wheeler’s writing than “Jackson” were his empathetic ballads about the vicissitudes of life in hardscrabble Appalachia.
In “Coal Tattoo,” a song popularized by the bluegrass singer Hazel Dickens, he wrote trenchantly about the exploitation of miners. “High Flying Bird,” another ode to longing and loss, was first recorded by the folk singer Judy Henske — and later by the disparate likes of Richie Havens and Jefferson Airplane. “Coward of the County,” a No. 1 country hit for Kenny Rogers in 1979 (it also reached No. 3 on the pop charts), dramatized what it means to live by the courage of one’s convictions.
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"The Coming of the Roads,” achingly rendered on a 1965 recording by Judy Collins, mourned the ruin brought on by encroaching commercial development in Mr. Wheeler’s beloved Appalachia."...(more)