* En anglais uniquement
Although
Ralph Ezell enjoyed his greatest commercial success as a co-founder of the country group
Shenandoah, he also deserves mention for his session work under producer
Rick Hall at the legendary FAME Studios. Born June 26, 1953 in Union, MS,
Ezell launched his career in 1979, playing bass in and around the Jackson area alongside local session players including guitarist
Jimmy English, pianist
David Baroni, keyboardist
Chalmers Davis, and drummer
Owen Hale. When floods destroyed the Jackson recording studio where the group worked,
Hall -- the producer whose FAME Studios virtually defined Alabama's Muscle Shoals soul sound -- hired the musicians, teaming them with local songwriter/guitarist Walt Aldridge to assemble what would become known as the "FAME Gang II." The arrival of
Ezell and his colleagues as house band coincided with the studio's shift from R&B to country, and during his tenure at FAME the bassist appeared on a series of sessions for Nashville hitmakers including
Mac Davis,
Jerry Reed,
Larry Gatlin, and
Marty Stuart, as well as aging soul greats
Wilson Pickett and
Dobie Gray.
Ezell also served as FAME's studio manager, staff engineer, and production assistant -- in the evenings, he moonlighted at the Muscle Shoals club Babe's, where in time he met vocalist
Marty Raybon, guitarist Jim Seales, keyboardist
Stan Thorn, and drummer Mike McGuire, with whom he founded
Shenandoah in 1985. Heralding country music's turn away from the slick, post-Urban Cowboy approach that dominated the first half of the decade to a more traditional, gritty sound,
Shenandoah vaulted to superstar status via 1989's
Hall-produced
The Road Not Taken, which generated three number one singles: "The Church on Cumberland Road," "Sunday in the South," and "Two Dozen Roses." Although their popularity waned in the decade to follow, the group continued touring for more than two decades -- while on tour with
Shenandoah, on November 30, 2007
Ezell suffered a fatal heart attack prior to a scheduled gig in Pickstown, SD. He was just 54 years old. ~ Jason Ankeny