And now it's Denny Freeman.....

who has left this mortal coil. Denny was for decades a major figure in the Austin music scene, moving there from Florida in 1970. He shared the stage with not just Stevie Ray Vaughan and the other up-and-comers, but all the original Blues greats. You better believe that if you don't "have the goods", you'd better not get up on stage with them. They'll cut you to pieces, leaving you a humiliated lump of quivering flesh.

Denny was a member of Dylan's road band from the mid-to-late 2000's, playing on his Modern Times album. His illness was not diagnosed until shortly before his death at age 76. Players like him don't come along every day, a member of a truly and literally dying breed. Denny said that though Dylan rehearsed the band before shows, once on stage he might call out a song the band had never heard, let alone played. Try that in front of an audience of multiple thousands: tightrope walking without a net. ;-)