January 23

 

Chicago suffered an irreplaceable loss today in 1978 when guitarist Terry Kath accidentally shot himself dead at 31 while playing with what he believed was an unloaded gun, the tragic accident ending the life of the musician Jimi Hendrix had called better than him…

 

Folk music lost one of its most distinctive voices on this day in 2024 when Melanie Safka died at 76, ending the life of the Woodstock veteran whose "Brand New Key" and "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" captured the hippie era's innocent spirit with her trembling vibrato…

 

Lynyrd Skynyrd mourned another founding member today in 1990 when guitarist Allen Collins died of pneumonia at 37, the 1977 plane crash survivor succumbing after years of personal tragedies including a car accident that paralyzed him and killed his girlfriend…

 

We remember jazz guitar's most innovative voice Django Reinhardt on his birthday today in 1910, the Belgian Romani guitarist whose hot club swing style using only two fingers on his fretting hand influenced every jazz guitarist who followed before his death in 1953…

 

We honor the E Street Band's accordion heart Danny Federici on his birthday today in 1950, the keyboardist whose organ swirls were essential to Bruce Springsteen's sound before melanoma claimed him in 2008, leaving a hole in the band's sonic landscape.