Joe Rudd & THE DISTORTIONS at Tuscaloosa's Ft. Brandon Armory courtesy of http://wtbc1230.com

Will Rudd, Joe's brother, called to tell me Joe passed away last night about 10:30 P.M. at the V.A. Hospital.

Will said that Joe appeared to suffer very little and just went to sleep and didn't wake up. Joe required very little pain medication during his hospital stay and every visit or phone call from his old gang really brought back his mental powers. Joe shared memories and joked with visitors till the very end.

Will is finalizing plans for a memorial service which will probably occur next Saturday. I feel that all the details will be worked out by this time tomorrow. Joe is survived by his 99 year old mother and her condition will dictate that the service be short.

Will told me that one of the things that he will carry away from the ordeal of the past three weeks will be an undying love for the preservation of Southern music.

I replied that we have two options:

We can let all our memories dissolve into oblivion or we can preserve all that we have left.

Will is not the only one who is making a commitment to remember our musical heritage. Many of the people who came to The Heeey Baby Days of Beach Music http://heybabydays.com
book signing with Greg Haynes last night will take a little more time to preserve that old concert poster or to scan those old photos or email us about their memories of the music and the men and women who entertain us.

I know Joe's ears were burning last night about 7 o'clock because everyone in the old Tuscaloosa crowd at Chuck's Fish http://www.chucksfish.com/
were talking about Joe Rudd as we hustled autographs from Greg Haynes, Nora Haynes, Tiger Jack Garrett, Bill Connell and Bennie Deer.

Connell had a really cool portrait of Gregg Allman and him taken recently when Bill and his wife, Laura, stayed at Gregg and his wife's house on a bayou near Savannah. Gregg was wearing a Chuck's Fish cap so maybe Bill can get him over to T-town for a little jam session at the restaurant. Gregg also told Bill that he had contacted Polydor to have them send Bill the four gold records that he is owed.

Thanks to everyone who had a hand in making last night's event a success and I'm sure I'll
see some of you at Joe Rudd's memorial service next Saturday.

Best,
Robert Register http://rockpilgrimage.blogspot.com

P.S. I'll send out more details on the Old Musician's Reunion and Super Jam Thursday night at Rhythm & Brews but I received this email from Jerry Henry:

Robert,
I want you to help me get the word out about Thursday night. The Musicians Reunion and Super Jam at Rhythm and Brews http://www.rhythmnbrews.com/
beginning at 8:00. Us old guys still know how to party. Great seeing everybody at Chuck's last weekend. Bill Connell coming in while I was there was a God send.
Thanks,
Jerry