Photo by Erik Hess

The prodigious singer-songwriter Zach Sobiech's trials with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, have ended. When his song "'Clouds" went viral last year, the teenager brought a wealth of hope and strength to his own situation and to countless others. On his Caring Bridge site today, his mother Laura Sobiech announced that he had passed surrounded by his sisters, brother, parents, and girlfriend. "We love him dearly," she writes. He was 18.

See Also:
SoulPancake releases Zach Sobiech documentary
Zach Sobiech: I hope a music career doesn't change who I am
Zach Sobiech at Varsity Theater, 2/16/13
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Sue McLean, an independent Twin Cities concert promoter, passed Friday afternoon after a battle with cancer. Any regular show-goer in the region has attended countless shows booked by McLean over the past four decades. McLean is responsible for booking the Basilica Block Party since it began in 1995, the Minnesota Zoo's extensive summer concert schedule each year, the O'Shaughnessy's Women of Substance Series, and dozens of other shows in nearly every club and theater in the Twin Cities. She was 63.

Raised in Dayton, Minnesota, McLean's work in the local music business began after she graduated from St. Cloud State in 1973 with a degree in speech and communication. In her early years she worked for rock promoter Randy Levy, and secured bookings for the Suicide Commandos and Curtiss A before moving on to become a talent buyer for Duffy's Nightclub. Her first booking ever: jazz bassist Charles Mingus at the Bronco Bar in Chanhassen.

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Nikki Miller-Rose

George Jones at the Freeborn County Fair in 2010.

To begin a remembrance of George Jones, one need look no further than his song lyrics. "He stopped loving her today, they placed a wreath upon his door." "Yabba Dabba Doo, the King is gone, and so are you." Jones died this morning at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, after being hospitalized there last week for treatment of a fever and irregular blood pressure. He was 81.

See also:
RIP George Jones: The story of how he learned to sing
Ten George Jones career milestones
George Jones at the Freeborn County Fair, 8/6/10

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Richie Havens at Woodstock in 1969

The fact that for years no one was certain how long Richie Havens played at Woodstock tells you he belonged to a different age. The 28-year-old folk singer from Brooklyn was not scheduled to be the event's opening act. In fact, he wasn't even stage manager John Morris' first choice for an emergency replacement when traffic snarls held up many of the acts. (And Tim Hardin was found too stoned to perform.) The largely unknown Havens was given the spot intended for Sweetwater, who had first caught ears with a heavy psychedelic take on a familiar spiritual, "Motherless Child."

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Tim Carr Memorial Page

Many in the local and global music community are mourning last week's loss of Tim Carr, an esteemed local music writer who went on to sign the Beastie Boys, Megadeth, and countless others in an impassioned career. He worked throughout the U.S. and eventually shifted his projects to Thailand, where he passed at the age of 57.

One of his personal friends, Dave Ayers, also has seen many pastures in his 30-year music business career. His A&R work includes Twin/Tone Records, Savoy Music, Capitol Records and Chrysalis, and he also managed Soul Asylum, Ween, Helmet, Joe Henry, Sparklehorse, and others. In September he and his partners launched Big Deal Music Publishing.

Gimme Noise reached out to Ayers to get some perspective on the loss of Carr, and this heartfelt remembrance is what we received.

See Also:
Tim Carr, local music critic and A&R rep, dead at 57

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Photo by Mark Kartarik

Henry Mackaman, the guitarist and producer for the Twin Cities psychedelic dream-pop act Phantom Vibration, died Wedneday. He was 21, and his sudden passing is attributed to bacterial meningitis.

The St. Paul native was a senior economics major at University of Wisconsin-Madison, but made regular trips back to the area to perform with Phantom Vibration. Last weekend, he had a high fever and went to the ER, but tests were inconclusive. He returned to the hospital Monday when he had a headache and his right hand felt funny, and it was determined that he was infected with meningococcal bacteria. His family confirmed via CaringBridge.org on Wednesday that his brain function had ceased.More »

The music community in the Twin Cities and beyond lost a friend in Tim Carr. The Hopkins-bred music writer and A&R representative who went on to sign the Beastie Boys to Capitol Records was found dead in his Thailand apartment. He was 57.

According to Pattaya103.com, he was reportedly found with a long knife wound across his chest, and circumstances were deemed suspicious by local police. Update: Carr's family disputes these claims, noting "we've indeed heard reports from Tim's property manager and a friend who has viewed the remains, that conflict with what was published in the Thai tabloids."  Carr had resided in Pattaya for eight years, and was working on a movie about a rock band, according to Jon Bream at the Star Tribune.

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A prime example of country music's late-'60s era of mellow and polished crooners, Jack Greene's sound was old, no doubt, but epitomized a style still enjoyed today by countless Opry listeners, who continue tuning in each week not only to hear contemporary acts, but also the classic sounds of Greene and his peers.

Following a career that charted a number of hits, including "There Goes My Everything," "All the Time" and "Statue of a Fool," Greene passed away during his sleep in his Nashville home Thursday evening, from complications related to Alzheimer's disease. He was 83.

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Jason Aukes with the RZA in 2012

Members of the Cabooze staff have confirmed that After Midnight Group manager Jason Aukes died on Thursday at his home. He was 36. Since his teenage years, Aukes has been involved in AMG, and worked his way up through the ranks.

Jason was born in Fridley in 1976, and grew up in Spring Lake Park, where he graduated from high school in 1995. After school, he started working in the hospitality industry right away "and he's been there forever," his father Duane Aukes says. "He always was a happy, go-lucky person, and always treated people with respect. Even as a child, he was always considerate of other people."

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The troubled life of country singer Mindy McCready has come to a close with the Cleburne County, Arkansas, Sheriff's Office stating that officers were dispatched to her home Sunday after neighbors reported hearing gunshots. There they found McCready on the front porch of her home, dead at the scene from what appeared to be a single self-inflicted gunshot wound.

A source close to McCready has told TMZ that the singer shot her dog before turning the gun on herself.

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