#ryley walker

Mark Lanegan Dead at 57

- Gravelly throated singer fronted Screaming Trees, collaborated with Queens of the Stone Age while forging a prolific solo career

Mark Lanegan is dead.

His death at age 57 was announced Feb. 22 without a cause given.

“Our beloved friend Mark Lanegan passed away this morning at his home in Killarney, Ireland,” read a statement that called Lanegan a “beloved singer, songwriter, author and musician.”

“No other information is available at this time. We ask, please respect the family privacy.”

“What a loss,” Rhino Records tweeted; “Legend,” Ryley Walker said.

The gravelly throated Lanegan was at the vanguard of the grunge movement with Screaming Trees in the 1990s.

“He was our true brother and we all truly loved him,” the surviving Trees said in a statement.

Lanegan performing in Ohio in 2019; photo by Sound Bites

While still with the band, he launched an acoustically minded solo career - 1994’s Whiskey for the Holy Ghost is a stone classic - before going on to collaborate with Queens of the Stone Age, Isobell Campbell, Duke Garwood and the Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli in a duo called the Gutter Twins.

Dulli posted a photo of himself with his collaborator and no comment.

“Hearing about Mark Lanegan passing away has properly stopped me in my tracks,” Badly Drawn Boy tweeted. “I’m absolutely gutted. … One of THE great singers of the last 30 years.”

The “incredibly shattered” staff of Light in the Attic Records called Lanegan “one of the truly great singers and songwriters,” in a statement issued upon his death.

“What a voice,” the label said. “Speechless.”

Lanegan recently wrote two memoirs, 2020’s “Sing Backwards and Weep,” about his early days as a musician and his struggle with addiction, and 2021’s “Devil in a Coma,” about his near-fatal bout with COVID-19.

“His voice was one of a kind, it reached into your soul and pulled your heart out,” read a statement from the Arkive, which has released several of Lanegan’s albums on its various imprints.

“He was truly unique and will be greatly missed. … We are honored to have had a small part in the long legacy he leaves behind.”

Eli Winter by Eli Winter

This may be Chicagoan guitarist Eli Winter’s first self-titled album, but that certainly doesn’t indicate a paucity of collaborators. And while Winter, a folk experimentalist with formidable chops has focused on these skills on previous releases, here he revels in musical partnerships. Ryley Walker, Yasmin Williams, Tyler Damon, David Grubbs and the late jaimie branch are all featured on the album. Compositions that are filled with interesting combinations but never overstuffed make this an engaging listen all the way through.

Ryley Walker / Neil Hagerty / Ryan Jewell - Bluebird Theater, Denver, Colorado, November 29, 2019

Daniel Johnston & Tweedy(, the band) - 10.20.2017 @ The Vic

Greg Spero & Blaque Dynamite - 10.2.2018 @ The Whistler

Neil Young - 1.23.2019 @ The Riverside Theater

Tortoise - 2.17.2019 @ The Empty Bottle

Sunwatchers - 4.13.2019 @ Cafe Mustache

Elkhorn + Charles Rumback 4.14.2019 @ Elastic

Papa M - 4.22.2019 @ Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

Ryley Walker - 8.16.2019 @ Hungry Brain

Mute Duo (Quintet) - 8.22.2019 @ The Empty Bottle

One Eleven Heavy - 9.5.2019 @ The Hideout

Bitchin Bajas - 9.12.2019 @ Constellation

Stereolab - 10.4.2019 @ Turner Hall Ballroom