"You know Jerry, that guy looks a lot like you.".....-Vassar looking at a billboard of the Grateful Dead while in the car with Jerry for the first time....

[This message was edited by Ryan McFarland on 16 August 2005 at 09:32 AM.]

Other than here I haven't seen anything on the web about his passing.

My condolences.

Drew

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Drew Howard - website - Fessenden D-10 8/8, Fessenden SD-12 5/5 (Ext E9), Magnatone S-8, N400's, BOSS RV-3

I'll never forget the time I saw him perform as a duo with John Hartford, in a small Pennslyvania theater, mid 70s.

They're together again.

[This message was edited by Joey Ace on 16 August 2005 at 09:12 AM.]

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  ~ ~
  ©¿©  It don't mean a thang,   
  mm   if it ain't got that twang.
       www.ntsga.com

[This message was edited by Smiley Roberts on 16 August 2005 at 11:36 AM.]

R.I.P. Vasser

I first played with him when I was touring the Northwest with Hoyt Axton in '78. We were splitting the bill with Vassar and his band. At the first sound check I discovered that Vassar didn't have a steel player, so I asked to sit in. To my unbounded delight, he said, "Sure." I played so much the next two weeks between two shows a night and jamming back at the hotels that I got repetitive stress injury and played the last few gigs with a brace on my left wrist. One night at the end of the tour, sitting around with both bands and in between playing tunes together, Vassar turned to Hoyt and said, "Ya' know Hoyt, if that steel player of yours gets on the wrong bus when we all leave tonight, it's all right with me." I was glowing. I still grin when I think of that.

[This message was edited by Pete Grant on 16 August 2005 at 01:25 PM.]

Pete, you nailed it when you described it as the "fluidity, joy and playfulness of his phrasing." Very few musicians could inspire me to play from the heart like Vassar could.

Actually ther was no band at all, just the two of them. They did solo sets and a duo set.

I remember Vassar saying he had a Potato Chip Truck (Mr. Chips, I think) after his stint with Monroe, and before the Circle album. I was amazed that my Potato Chip Delivery Man could be a legendary fiddler.

'Hillbilly Jazz' stylist worked with many of music's top acts

By PETER COOPER
and TIM GHIANNI
Staff Writers

Vassar Clements, the "Hillbilly Jazz" stylist whose genre-bounding fiddle work marked him as one of Nashville's most accomplished, versatile and adventurous musicians, died at 7:20 yesterday morning at home in Goodlettsville. He was 77 and had been battling cancer.
"He was one of the greatest, most creative fiddlers in country and bluegrass music history," said Mark O'Connor, a virtuoso fiddler who counted Mr. Clements among his musical heroes.

Mr. Clements worked with music greats including Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Emmylou Harris, The Band, The Byrds, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Grateful Dead, Tom T. Hall, John Prine, Kris Kristofferson and Bonnie Raitt. He was appreciated not only for his expansive musicality but also for a personality that led Kristofferson to deem him, "The nicest person I ever met in the music business."
Born in Kinard, Fla., and raised in Kissimmee, Fla., Mr. Clements had a professional career that began at age 14, when he became a member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in 1949. From 1958 to 1961, he worked with bluegrass stars Jim & Jesse. Although Mr. Clements later became recognized for his remarkable improvisational and interpretive skills, his early work as a bluegrass fiddle player was quite influential.
"There was such a feeling of authority in his bluegrass playing," said WSM-AM 650 air personality and country music historian Eddie Stubbs. "His tone was so rich and powerful."
In the early 1960s, Mr. Clements dropped out of the music business, eventually winding up in Florida as the owner of a potato chip franchise. In 1967, though, he resumed his musical career and began working with Jimmy Martin and Faron Young.
In 1971, he began performing with John Hartford, an innovative acoustic musician who encouraged Mr. Clements' improvisational flights. Mr. Clements' legacy was ensured in 1972, when he recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on the landmark Will the Circle Be Unbroken album. Mr. Clements' old-school work ethic mixed well on the Circle sessions with country music legends such as Roy Acuff and Mother Maybelle Carter, and his penchant for experimentation melded well with the Dirt Band, a group he later joined for a tour of Japan.
"He loved it over there, and they loved him," said Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member Jeff Hanna. "When we went onstage in Japan, there were people holding up 'Vassar Clements' placards."
Mr. Clements was a member of the progressive Earl Scruggs Revue in the 1970s, and his work with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead helped plant the seed to a musical reputation that spread well beyond Nashville circles. His trademark "Hillbilly Jazz" sound was beloved by fellow musicians, as well as by some outside of the music community: In 1980, Playboy playmate Martha Elizabeth Thomsen named Mr. Clements as one of her favorite performers, along with Mick Jagger, Blondie and Bonnie Raitt.
Earlier this year, Mr. Clements' work with the Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, Jerry Douglas and Randy Scruggs on a version of Earl's Breakdown won a Grammy Award for best country instrumental performance.
Mr. Clements went to Summit Hospital on Aug. 4, and tests revealed that small-cell lung cancer had spread to his brain. He was discharged Aug. 10 after he refused further treatment. Since March 10, he had endured five rounds of chemotherapy.
"He didn't want to be stuck anymore," said his daughter Midge Cranor, with whom Mr. Clements lived. "He wanted to die at home."
He is survived by his daughters, Midge Cranor of Goodlettsville, Terry Mason of Tallahassee, Fla., Renee Clements of Thomasville, Ga., and Terri Swain of Fairview; a son, George Wilkerson of Florida; a sister, Janice Hendershot of Claremont, N.C.; and a cousin he considered as a brother, Carroll Clements of Jacksonville, Fla.
Funeral details are incomplete. Bond Funeral Home in Mt. Juliet is handling arrangements. •

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"Promat"
~when tone matters~
http://hometown.aol.com/damirzanne2/PROMAT.html

Friday, viewing; from 1pm - 4pm and again from 6pm - 9pm
Saturday; service at 1pm.

Bond Memorial Chapel LLC, (615) 773-2663, 1098 Weston Dr, Mount Juliet, TN 37122

[This message was edited by Mark van Allen on 17 August 2005 at 10:51 PM.]

I had the pleasure of meeting him when he played in Minneapolis some years ago, and had my picture taken with him. One of my cherish treasures. Along with Johnny Gimble, he is one of my favorite fiddle players. I also have the Old and in the Gray CD's with him playing.

May God grant his family peace at this time of sorrow.

Dennis

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Gorilla Amp with Digitech RP100 Processor
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Mike