19 December 26, 2024-January 1, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Coda Remembering those we lost in the Dallas music scene in 2024. BY DAVID FLETCHER W hether they were native to North Texas or had just made a profound impact on our musical community and its fans, these are the lives we are remembering as the year comes to a close. They inspired us, made us dance, made us laugh, made us think about our problems through new lenses or just made us forget our troubles entirely, if only for a moment. We are forever grateful for and indebted to these people for bringing people together in the spirit of music. Steve Albini Along with the rest of the music world, Texas recording artists honored Steve Albini with touching tributes on social media when he died in May. In a particularly touching memorial, Dallas-bred super-producer John Congleton credited Albini with helping him transition out of homelessness and start his career: “Steve Albini literally brought me in from the streets of Chicago in 1997. I was a vagrant living illegally in the dorms of De- Paul, dreaming of making records. I was homeless and then I was not,” posted Con- gleton when the news broke. The Toadies revealed they’d been in ses- sions at Electrical Audio with Albini, which they called “a lifetime dream come true.” North Texas record producer and Steve Albini collaborator Britt Robisheaux re- flected on his first exposure to Albini’s work at a young and formative age. “Like many others, my first introduction was in middle school when one of the guys brought a copy of At Action Park to band practice. I tripped into the rabbit hole that day and never came out.” Vanessa Quilantan Enchanting The “No Luv” rapper, born Channing Nicole Larry, was admitted to an intensive care unit on June 10 and placed on life support for un- stated reasons. After some false reports, her death was confirmed on Twitter by both her sister, Kay Jay, and her friend and collabora- tor, Lil CJ Kasino. She was 26. Enchanting, formerly a signee of Gucci Mane’s 1017 Records, released her final LP, Luv Scarred, last year. “I feel like music was always something that was easy for me,” she told the Observer ahead of the album’s release. “I felt like I was musically inclined, always. It was some- thing that I thought should probably put more time and effort into, because it was natural, you know, instead of trying to force a talent.” Carly May Gravley Kinky Friedman The Lone Star State lost a towering public figure on June 27 when musician, humorist and one-time gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman died at his Echo Hill ranch in Medina, Texas, after a years-long battle with Parkinson’s disease. The country and western satirist dandy was known for his unique brand of folksy-kitsch storytelling and for a glamorous raconteur lifestyle in the company of friends and collaborators in- cluding Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and T- Bone Burnett. Friedman was a larger-than-life Texas treasure and folk hero, which means that he will live on as such within the cultural fabric of the Lone Star State. Strong in his convic- tions without taking himself too seriously, he lived loud and he spoke out during his time on earth. VQ Michael Corcoran Known to friends and colleagues as “Corky,” Michael Corcoran was an award-winning newspaper writer and author who special- ized in Texas music. He died in July at age 68. Corcoran had spent the early ‘90s as a pop music critic for The Dallas Morning News before moving on to the Austin Ameri- can-Statesman, where he worked from 1995 to 2011. He earned a Cox Newspapers “Writer of the Year” honor in 1996. During his time in Austin, he won the 2003 AAFSE Award for Best Entertainment Feature with “The Devil and Billy Joe Shaver” and the ti- tle of Best Music Critic from The Austin Chronicle in 2017. The revered writer also published work in Creem magazine, Rolling Stone and Na- tional Lampoon. Corcoran wrote the books All Over the Map: True Heros of Texas Music (a part of the “North Texas Lives of Musi- cians” book series from TCU Press) and Ghost Notes: Pioneering Spirits of Texas Mu- sic, cementing his reputation as a robust au- thority on the Lone Star State’s music history. His book, Austin Music Is a Scene Not a Sound, was released in the fall by TCU Press. VQ Zac Crain Zac Crain, author, senior editor at D Maga- zine, former music editor for the Dallas Ob- server and one-time mayoral candidate, died on July 16 at the age of 50. He was — and it hurts to write in past tense here — an amazingly smart, wonder- fully kind and incredibly talented writer and editor. He was also one of the most wickedly funny people I’ve had the joy to work with. He played things close to the vest, so I was never quite sure whether his 2007 run for mayor was performance art or for real. But he knew and loved this city and would have made a fine mayor. Or more appropriately, Zac Crain would have made a great fucking mayor. Patrick Williams John Freeman John Freeman started making noise around the University of North Texas’s Bruce Hall in the fall of 1990. Show up at the Punk Rock Weenie Roast and you could watch a guy with Tourette’s Syndrome sort of playing guitar and half crooning, half screeching original songs about TV’s Webster (“I Touched Emmanuel Lewis”) and the Ken- nedy assassination (“JFKaput!”) in between Prince covers. It wasn’t like anything you’d ever seen, and you either didn’t get it at all or you could not get enough. Freeman died in August at age 52. As a solo artist, his musicianship was clearly style over substance — a gifted writer to be sure, but John never had the patience to really learn how to play an instrument. Friend and bandmate Matt Pence (Centro- matic, Shakey Graves) remembers: “His mind moved incredibly fast — imagine a hummingbird — so in the time it took to learn even the simplest chord he’d have thought of 10 new song ideas. When he fig- ured out he could use alternate tuning to change chords with just one finger, John’s guitar lessons were over.” Darci Ratliff Shaun Martin An alum of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Weatherford College and the University of North Texas, Martin — an acclaimed pro- ducer, arranger, composer and musician — was primarily associated with Denton-based Snarky Puppy, which counted him among its ranks. He also served musical director for fellow North Texan Kirk Franklin Geeno Mizelli Enchanting Brian Kanof Kinky Friedman Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images Steve Albini ▼ Music courtesy Zac Crain Zac Crain Jeffery Liles Michael Corcoran Johnny Murder John Freeman >> p20
