Mac Gayden

[Pete Finney]

Mac Gayden, renowned musician, songwriter, singer, and producer has passed away at 83. Among many other accomplishments Mac was a founding member of both Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry. I'm proud to have known Mac as a musician for many years and to have worked on many projects with him live and in the studio, but am much more grateful to have known him as a friend. He was a brilliant but soft-spoken man who would light-up any room he walked into with his spirit and intelligence, and he left a deep impression on many, many people.
RIP Mac

From the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/arts ... -dead.html

For those who don't know his music here's a re-creation of his section of the "...Nashville Cats" exhibit mentioned in the NY Times, with links to some edited musical highlights (meant to show off his songwriting as much his great playing).
https://countrymusichalloffame.org/exhi ... ac-gayden/

Anybody have links to other favorite Mac Gayden moments? There's a lot of great ones over the years.

[Joachim Kettner]

That's a fine obituary you wrote here Pete. I have the two albums he recorded with Skyboat and his last solo record he made maybe five years ago.

[Craig Stock]

Another good obit from SavingcountryMusic.com.

https://savingcountrymusic.com/legendar ... -has-died/

[Peter Dollard]

His work on Steve Young's seminal albums (particularly Lonesome, Ornery, and Mean) had some of the best slide playing along side Buddy Emmons that i have ever heard. I asked Buddy who said that was one of his favorite sessions.... Actually everybody who played on it was great.