Rockabilly -- and, indeed, all outsider rock -- suffered a great loss this week when singer-guitarist Charlie Feathers died on Saturday after suffering a massive stroke earlier in the week. |
Feathers, who was sixty-six years old, was one of rock's truest innovators, never losing the primitive edge that made his early recordings (many of which were collected on the just-released two-CD retrospective Get With It) so revered by a rabid cult following that included a vast array of modern-day musicians.
Although his recording career spanned four decades -- dating back to a stint with Sun Records, where he cut singles and even wrote a song ("I Forgot to Remember to Forget") for Elvis Presley -- Feathers' propensity for mercurial behavior and wildly erratic performances hampered his rise. Those same elements endeared him to rockabilly purists, who reveled in the singer's over-the-top antics and a remarkable vocal delivery that was awash in hiccups, growls and feral noises fierce enough to scare the daylights out of even the most jaded listener.
Most of the Mississippi-born pioneer's finest moments were recorded for tiny labels and issued on singles that trade hands for considerable sums, but he was coaxed out of semi-retirement by producer Ben Vaughn in the early Nineties to record an album for Elektra's Nonesuch imprint.
He is survived by wife Rosemary, daughter Wanda Vanzant and sons Ricky & Charles 'Bubba' Feathers Jr.
DAVID SPRAGUE(September 3, 1998)
