Vern Williams passes

[Fred Keller]

Got this on co-mando...

California bluegrass pioneer, vocal powerhouse and mandolin master Vern
Williams passed away yesterday, June 6th.

For a much more eloquent eulogy then I could ever write, read J.D.
Rhynes words at http://www.cbaontheweb.com/. It is the Welcome message
of the day so it will be on the front page for June 7th only.

_Ian Gilmore_

[spoefish]

I have not had a chance to hear him in person for a long time now, but still have vivid memories of seeing Vern and Ray at Gold Rush Days in Coloma, CA in 1969. #Man were they good, and his version of "Pick me up on your way down" has stuck in my brain to this day. #Sometimes I feel like I live on an island that is slowly being eroded away. #Whoops, then I look around with folks like Chris T. laying new ground on the other side and think maybe it is the circle of life. #Still, always feel diminished when someone who was so fine is called away. #Thanks Vern, and tell Bill hi.

Stephen

[Fred Keller]

Yeah, it's a crying shame. I was just turned on to Vern's music about 6 months ago and haven't been able to get enough since. 2 weeks ago I took deliver of Vern & Ray With Herb Pedersen, San Francisco--1968. What a phenomenal live concert--great CD. His high tenor singing gives me chills.

Ironically, my wife and I are planning a trip to Sacramento later this summer and I was thinking...I wonder if Vern still plays at all?

[telepbrman]

He was number one in my book on Bluegrass playin'...I wish him peace in the valley, dy.

[swampstomper]

We discussed his mando playing a month or so back. When I have had too much jazzmando practice and just need to make the mando really open up, I put on Vern Williams and try to get that patented sound -- attack, tremelo, sparse choice of notes... he really knew what he wanted to sound like. As the tribute said, "heard Bill Monroe and have never been right since"... same here. Heard Vern Williams and remembered what Blue Grass Music really is.

I liked Pete Wernick's comments about the trinity of W Coast BG all having passed. How about the trinity of hard-core BG: Williams, Allen and Busby?

[Steve Williams]

"How about the trinity of hard-core BG: Williams, Allen and Busby?"

I agree...I'm listening to Buzz's "Going Home" CD right now. #

[mandopete]

First it was Mike Lantz, then Larry Rice and now Vern Williams. This has been a tough year for mandolin players.

[Brian Ray]

It's all Vern all day at the dasspunk domicile (and juice bar).

I only learned about Mr. Williams very recently when I began pickin' with his Granddaughter Jenny Lynn's band. I picked up the Bluegrass from the Gold Country record to give it a go and was instantly hooked. There's just something about Vern... I highly recommend checking him out!

RIP Mr. Williams.

[Monte37]

Hearing about this passing of Vern Williams, I am taken back to a time in California when Bluegrass was blooming and I was young and eager to just play. I am talkin the 70's here and not even sure which group I was in when I first met them. .
If I am correct, I first met Vern, Ray, and Delbert when playing at the Jackson Hotel in Calaveras. We were always running into each other at any festival from Sacramento, Grass Valley, and down the Gold Rush ridge.
My respects and condolences go out the Williams family, and without expecting Delbert to remember me, my regards from Austin Texas.
I am coming out to the Stanislaus area next week. While driving on 49 and passing the Jackson Hotel, I will remember Vern Williams.
Keep it pickin Delbert...
Richard Somers, formerly of the Bay Area.

[brianunitt]

Laurie Lewis wrote this in her newsletter about Vern Williams' passing, and I thought it was well worth sharing, so I hope she doesn't mind:
#"It is with great sadness that I must tell you that one of my heroes, Vern Williams, passed away yesterday at the age of 76. Vern was a fine mandolin player and a wonderful singer, with a voice like 80-grit sandpaper that managed to retain a simultaneous sweetness. ... Asked at a workshop once about what it takes to sing bluegrass, Vern replied, "You've got to spill your guts onstage. And #hen walk in them." Vern sang like a siren, a car horn, a bugling elk, a big leather
bellows, rearing back away from the mic and blasting through the band with his high tenor. He sang the great old songs, with a penchant for Stephen Foster and Carter Family material. He always had an interesting and varied
repertoire, full of beautiful gems that nobody else was singing. It was my great good fortune to play bass in the Vern Williams Band over the course of about a year in 1979 and 1980, along with Keith Little on banjo, Ed Neff
(or occasionally Paul Shelasky) on fiddle, and Vern's son #elbert on guitar. I was in heaven, with the best seat in the house for that scraped-clean, unvarnished sound. Playing with them at little pizza parlors, restaurants and festivals has always been among the highlights of
my musical career.
Today, Kathy Kallick and I got together and reminisced about the Vern and Ray days and sang some of Vern's songs, including "Cabin on a Mountain," "Sweet Fern," "My Clinch Mountain Home," "Little Annie," "Field of Flowers," and "Happy I'll Be." Vern's music and his joy in playing are so entwined into the fabric that has held the Northern California bluegrass scene together, and though he has been largely absent from that scene for
the last decade due to health problems, it is hard to think of him as no longer among us. It is a tribute to his spirit, though, that his passing
makes me want to sing more."

[RustyMadd]

He passed before I ever even knew I loved his style. Thank you for educating me and adding to my library. Blessings

PS Anyone still picking bluegrass/old time around the Jackson area or has that era passed?