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Chris Whitley dies at 45
Veteran Texas singer/songwriter succumbs to lung cancer after more than 20 years of making his own brand of country blues and alternative rock.
Singer-songwriter Chris Whitley died Sunday in Houston after a lengthy battle with lung cancer. He was 45.
Whitley, a favorite of singer and ATO Records founder Dave Matthews, is survived by his daughter Trixie, his brother Dan, and his girlfriend Susanne.
"My father took his last breath last night the 20th of November," Trixie Whitley wrote on her father's Web site. "The people he needed and loved the most were with him while and when he left in peace."
Whitley played a wide range of music over his career but mostly focused on slide steel guitar-driven country blues and alternative rock. He has worked with producers Daniel Lanois and Craig Street, Dave Matthews, and members of Medeski, Martin and Wood.
Whitley recorded his major label debut, Living with the Law, on Columbia Records in 1991. His career was marked by stylistic changes from album to album. His follow-up to Living with the Law, Din of Ecstasy, moved into grunge.
In 2002, Sony issued a single-disc collection of his first decade on the major label in its subsidiaries, Long Way Around: An Anthology 1991-2001.
In 2001, he released the experimental Rocket House for Matthews' ATO Records. His Soft Dangerous Shores came out in July, and another album, Reiter In, comes out in December.
"I hope you all will mourn my brother's death but more important celebrate his life as Chris was all about life and living," Dan Whitley wrote on his brother's Web site. "I started the celebration by cranking up [the 1998 album] Dirt Floor in his honor ... crying still. Chris Whitley's legacy will no doubt transcend all time."
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