RIP "Nashville sound" pioneer Ferlin Husky

[Aj]

Dead at 85.

Ferlin Husky, the innovative recording artist whose 1957 smash "Gone" helped usher in the pop-leaning Nashville Sound era, died Thursday... he is best known for his contributions in sweetening the sound of Music Row in a way that allowed the music to appeal to twang-phobic audiences.

(The sound of "Gone") spawned plenty of imitators and helped bring country music into the pop mainstream. It was something of a blueprint for Nashville producers seeking to reach listeners who were interested neither in the twangy honky-tonk country of the early 1950s nor the swaggering rock 'n' roll sounds of Presley and others. Some country purists railed against the new "Nashville Sound," but it provided a commercially viable alternative to the rock surge and it served as a precursor to the cross-genre successes of new century hitmakers such as Lady Antebellum and Taylor Swift.

http://www.jconline.com/article/2011031 ... y-dies-85-