Best known for co-authoring the immortal "(Is Anybody Going To) San Antone," singer/songwriter and session guitarist
Dave Kirby was born in Brady, TX, on July 10, 1938. He was a natural musician and took up the guitar while still a young boy, encouraged by a family that included more than its share of musicians, among them his uncle, Big Bill Lister, who often opened shows for
Hank Williams and played with the Drifting Cowboys. When Lister played local gigs in Texas, he began bringing his nephew -- then age seven -- on-stage to play.
Kirby began his formal performing career in 1955, relocating to Albuquerque and playing country music at a local radio station. In time, he also began composing his own songs, and in 1963
Buck Owens recorded his "Down by the River"; soon
Rose Maddox and
Porter Wagoner cut their renditions of
Kirby's songs as well, and
Kirby also spent a year playing guitar in
Willie Nelson's band during the early '60s.
Nelson and
Hank Cochran were both instrumental in convincing
Kirby to move to Nashville, and he finally made the leap in 1967, becoming a sought-after session guitarist. More importantly,
Kirby also signed on with
Ray Price's publishing firm, Pamper Music, working alongside
Nelson and
Cochran as well as
Roger Miller and
Harlan Howard. He even signed to
Fred Foster's Monument Records as a solo act, scoring the hit "Her and the Car and the Mobile Home" in 1969.
Written with Glenn Martin in 1967, "(Is Anybody Going To) San Antone" lay dormant for three years before
Charley Pride reluctantly agreed to cut the song; it became his third number one hit, topping the charts for two weeks in early 1970. Hits for
Merle Haggard ("Sidewalks of Chicago"),
George Jones and
Tammy Wynette ("God's Gonna Getcha [For That]"),
Johnny Cash and
Waylon Jennings ("There Ain't No Good Chain Gang"), and
Gene Watson ("Memories to Burn") followed, and in all
Kirby wrote in excess of 300 songs, recorded by everyone from
Ray Charles to
Kitty Wells to
Faron Young. In 1973 Dot issued a solo album, This Is Dave Kirby: Singer, Picker, Writer. In 1985
Kirby wed
Haggard's former wife
Leona Williams, and together they settled in Branson, MO, regularly performing at the tourist town's myriad dinner theaters. He died April 17, 2004, with his first new album in two decades, Mr. Songwriter, appearing posthumously a few months later. ~ Jason Ankeny & Bruce Eder