I wanted to copy the comments I made on the Political Dogfight post of the passing of Chris LeDoux here:

“That’s terrible to hear. I had no idea that Chris had died. My wife and I have been Chris LeDoux fans for many years, in fact one of our first dates was at a Chris LeDoux concert at the Ventura Fairgrounds – every time I hear ‘County Fair’, I think of that. We saw him in concert the week before we got married, and his “Two in a Million” was our wedding song.

(our first dance to ‘Two in a Million’)

Every time I hear “Western Skies”, I am reminded of our honeymoon in Montana, and “Song of Wyoming” brings up images of our vacation backpacking in the Tetons. His music is the spirit of the American West to me, and I am incredibly sorry to hear of his passing. I’ve been to many of the concerts he did here in California, from one in Moorpark all the way up to a few Mid-State fairs when he played on the free stages. I remember when his drummer took off for a while and his kid filled in for a few months, and then his drummer came back and they had two drums going at the same time on stage. I even remember when he had that surgery and then started touring again, but he had to stop riding the bull at the end of his show. I remember him saying how long he’d been married to his wife, and how much he still loved her after all these years, before singing “Gravitaional Pull” every time.

I remember his energy, his enthusiasm and his wonderful music. In the current pop country music world of the likes of Rascal Flatts and “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy”, Chris’s music always reminds me why I liked country music to begin with. It is about cowboys, rodeo, friendship, love and freedom. I guess I’ll just put on “Melodies and Memories” from my old box set and say a little ‘goodbye’ to a real American artist.”

Dogfight’s Stuart O’Neill says it best – “It’s a hell of a bad day…”.