News
LOS ANGELES, March 28 2004— Jan Berry, a member of the duo Jan & Dean, which had the 1960's surf music hits "Dead Man's Curve" and "The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)," died on Friday. He was 62.
Mr. Berry had a seizure and stopped breathing at his home, and was pronounced dead Friday evening at a hospital here, said his wife, Gertie Berry.
He had been in poor health recently from the lingering effects of brain damage from a 1966 car crash.
Jan & Dean had a string of hits and 10 gold records in the 1960's. Among them were "Surf City" in 1963, with its lines about taking the station wagon to a place where there are "two girls for every boy," and "The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)" in 1964, about a hot-rod-racing grandma.
Mr. Berry was considered the creative force behind Jan & Dean and pioneered, along with his friend and Beach Boys member, Brian Wilson, the surf music sound of driving drums and guitar and falsetto harmonies. Mr. Berry wrote the lyrics to "Surf City" and "Dead Man's Curve" with Mr. Wilson.
William Jan Berry was born on April 3, 1941, in the wealthy Bel Air area of Los Angeles to a large family. His father, William, was an engineer who helped build Howard Hughes's Spruce Goose airplane, Gertie Berry said.
Mr. Berry's hitmaking career with Dean Torrence, a friend whom he met while playing high school football in West Los Angeles, was cut short in 1966 when his speeding Corvette hit a parked truck and he suffered brain damage that left him partly paralyzed and unable to talk.
Mr. Berry's recovery was slow, but eventually he was able to resume singing and writing songs.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Berry is survived by his
parents, William and Clara Berry of Camarillo, Calif.; three brothers; and
three sisters.
10/14/03
SIR Platinum Cafe now open
09/12/03
Country
Singer Johnny Cash Dies at 71
6:12 AM EDT,September 12, 2003
By Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Johnny Cash, a towering figure in American music spanning country,
rock and folk and known worldwide as "The Man in Black," has died,
according to hospital officials in Nashville, Tenn. He was 71.
"Johnny died due to complications from diabetes, which resulted in respiratory
failure," said Cash's manager, Lou Robin, in a press release issued by
Baptist Hospital in Nashville.
The release said Cash died at the hospital at 1 a.m. EDT. He was released
from Baptist on Wednesday where he had spent two weeks being treated for an
unspecified stomach ailment.
"I hope that friends and fans of Johnny will pray for the Cash family
to find comfort during this very difficult time," Robin said.
Cash had battled a disease of the nervous system, autonomic neuropathy, and
pneumonia in recent years and was once diagnosed with a disease called Shy-Drager's
syndrome, a diagnosis that was later deemed to be erroneous.
Dozens of hit records like "Folsom Prison Blues," "I Walk the
Line," and "Sunday Morning Coming Down" defined Cash's persona:
a haunted, dignified, resilient spokesman for the working man and downtrodden.
Cash's deeply lined face fit well with his unsteady voice, which was limited
in range but used to great effect to sing about prisoners, heartaches, and
tales of everyday life. He wrote much of his own material, and was among the
first to record the songs of Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson.
"One Piece at a Time" was about an assembly line worker who built
a car out of parts stolen from his factory. "A Boy Named Sue" was
a comical story of a father who gives his son a girl's name to make him tough.
"The Ballad of Ira Hayes" told of the drunken death of an American
Indian soldier who helped raised the American flag at Iwo Jima during World
War II, but returned to harsh racism in America.
Cash said in his 1997 autobiography "Cash" that he tried to speak
for "voices that were ignored or even suppressed in the entertainment
media, not to mention the political and educational establishments."
Cash's career spanned generations, with each finding something of value in
his simple records, many of which used his trademark "boom-chicka-boom"
rhythm.
Cash was a peer of Elvis Presley when rock 'n' roll was born in Memphis in
the 1950s, and he scored hits like "Cry! Cry! Cry!" during that
era. He had a longtime friendship and recorded with Dylan, who has cited Cash
as a major influence.
He won 11 Grammys -- most recently in 2003, when "Give My Love To Rose"
earned him honors as best male country vocal performance -- and numerous Country
Music Association awards. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame
in 1980 and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
His second wife, June Carter Cash, and daughter Roseanne Cash also were successful
singers. June Carter Cash, who co-wrote Cash's hit "Ring of Fire"
and partnered with her husband in hits such as "Jackson," died in
May 2003.
The late 1960s and '70s were Cash's peak commercial years, and he was host
of his own ABC variety show from 1969-71. In later years, he was part of the
Highwayman supergroup with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kristofferson.
In the 1990s, he found a new artistic life recording with rap and hard rock
producer Rick Rubin on the label American Recordings. And he was back on the
charts in with the 2002 album "American IV: the Man Comes Around."
He also wrote books including two autobiographies, and acted in films and
television shows.
In his 1971 hit "Man in Black," Cash said his black clothing symbolized
the downtrodden people in the world. Cash had been "The Man in Black"
since he joined the Grand Ole Opry at age 25.
"Everybody was wearing rhinestones, all those sparkle clothes and cowboy
boots," he said in 1986. "I decided to wear a black shirt and pants
and see if I could get by with it. I did and I've worn black clothes ever
since."
John R. Cash was born Feb. 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Ark., one of seven children.
When he was 12, his 14-year-old brother and hero, Jack, died after an accident
while sawing oak trees into fence posts. The tragedy had a lasting impact
on Cash, and he later pointed to it as a possible reason his music was frequently
melancholy.
He worked as a custodian and enlisted in the Air Force, learning guitar while
stationed in Germany, before launching his music career after his 1954 discharge.
"All through the Air Force, I was so lonely for those three years,"
Cash told The Associated Press during a 1996 interview. "If I couldn't
have sung all those old country songs, I don't think I could have made it."
Cash launched his career in Memphis, performing on radio station KWEM. He
auditioned with Sun Records, ultimately recording the single "Hey Porter,"
which became a hit.
Sun Records also launched the careers of Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis
and others.
"Folsom Prison Blues," went to No. 4 on the country charts in 1956,
and featured Cash's most famous couplet: "I shot a man in Reno/ just
to watch him die."
Cash recorded theme albums celebrating the railroads and the Old West, and
decrying the mistreatment of American Indians. Two of his most popular albums
were recorded live at prisons. Along the way he notched 14 No. 1 country music
hits.
Because of Cash's frequent performances in prisons and his rowdy lifestyle
early in his career, many people wrongly thought he had served prison time.
He never did, though he battled addictions to pills on and off throughout
his life.
He blamed fame for his vulnerability to drug addiction.
"When I was a kid, I always knew I'd sing on the radio someday. I never
thought about fame until it started happening to me," he said in 1988.
"Then it was hard to handle. That's why I turned to pills."
He credited June Carter Cash, whom he married in 1968, with helping him stay
off drugs, though he had several relapses over the years and was treated at
the Betty Ford Center in California in 1984.
June Carter Cash was the daughter of country music great Mother Maybelle Carter,
and the mother of singer Carlene Carter. Together, the couple had one child,
John Carter Cash. He is a musician and producer.
Singer Rosanne Cash is Johnny Cash's daughter from his first marriage, to
Vivian Liberto. Their other three children were Kathleen, Cindy and Tara.
They divorced in 1966.
In March 1998, Cash made headlines when his California-based record company,
American Recordings, took out an advertisement in the music trade magazine
Billboard. The full-page ad celebrated Cash's 1998 Grammy award for best country
album for "Unchained." The ad showed an enraged-looking Cash in
his younger years making an obscene gesture to sarcastically illustrate his
thanks to country radio stations and "the country music establishment
in Nashville," which he felt had unfairly cast him aside.
Jennings, a close friend, once said of Cash: "He's been like a brother
to me. He's one of the greatest people in the world."
Cash once credited his mother, Carrie Rivers Cash, with encouraging him to
pursue a singing career.
"My mother told me to keep on singing, and that kept me working through
the cotton fields. She said God has his hand on you. You'll be singing for
the world someday."
Cash lived in Hendersonville, Tenn., just outside of Nashville. He also had
a home in Jamaica.
05/31/03
SIR Las Vegas now has a Stage for you to rehearse at.
S.I.R. Las Vegas Studio
Studio Dimensions: 39'W, 42'D and 14'H
10 Mix Monitor System with JBL SR4704A Monitors SoundCraft Delta 32 X 10 Monitor Board 200 Amps of Stage Power 20' X 20' Box Truss QSC Power Amps & Rane Equalization JBL DSC260 Drum Fill, JBL SR 4732A Side Fills and JBL SR 4719A Subs Studio Instrument Rentals - Las Vegas
1118 Bonneville Street Las Vegas, NV 89101Call SIR Las Vegas today and book your room. SIR Los Angeles is in the process of upgrading Stage # 4.
10/01/02
SIR is as always growing to serve the needs of the industry. We have recently been featured on the DBX Drive rack site for our install of their system. Click here to see the featured article.
04/22/02
SIR San Francisco now has their very own web site so if you wish to visit them go to www.sirsf.com
tell them, we sent you.
04/18/02
Stage 5 is now open and it turned out very nice.
04/08/02
The SIR Stages have been upgraded with the new DBX Drive rack systems. We have also added a new assortment of Shure Mics like the KSM line. More of todays artists use shure mics on stage.
03/15/02
It's been a while since you have had a update in this section. We have been real busy this year expanding our present location with a new stage. More room for you the artist to practice. Stage 5 will be ready very soon.
01/22/02:
Many updates just look around the site and see. I have set up a gallery for guitars and amps so you can see what our stock looks like. email and tell me what you would like
11/24/01:
SIR Las Vegas is now open at the site of Mahoney's Pro Music & Drum Shop
608 South Maryland Parkway
Las Vegas, NV, 89101.Click on logo to visit the web site
10/14/01:
It looks like a SIR Las Vegas is in our future so watch us grow in the city of lights very soon. We already service you from Los Angeles but this new location will make us a part of your community
09/30/01:
