Ronnie Drew, founder of The Dubliners and one of the towering geniuses of Irish music, has died aged 73. Drew was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2006.

Drew fell in with a bunch of folk musicians in Dublin in the late ’50s, after playing a show at the Gate Theatre. Originally known as the Ronnie Drew Group, they initially appeared in a Gate production called A Ballad Tour Of Ireland, before becoming The Dubliners in 1962.

Over the years, Drew and his band became synonymous with an alluring strain of Irish culture – roistering, free-spirited, literate and hedonistic. They had a UK hit with the self-explanatory “Seven Drunken Nights”, and lived accordingly.

In the 1980s, Drew and the surviving members of his band found kindred spirits in The Pogues, who they collaborated with on a hit version of “The Irish Rover” in 1987.

Exhausted by the life, Drew left The Dubliners in 1995 and went solo for a second time (he had briefly quit his band in the mid ’70s). In later years, he gave up drinking and showed a more serious side of his rambunctious character.

Early in 2008, a star-studded line-up of Irish fans, including U2, Sinead O’Connor, The Corrs, Chieftains, Shane MacGowan and Christy Moore – released a tribute single, “The Ballad of Ronnie Drew”, with proceeds to the Irish Cancer Society.

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The term “R&B” has, in the 21st century, almost entirely lost its meaning. It’s a tidy, lazy, convenient catch-all that acts as an umbrella for any artist with the vaguest notion of music that contains elements of either “rhythm” or “blues”.

It wasn’t always that way; not when the phrase was first coined in 1953 by a jobbing New York Jewish songwriter and all-round chancer called Jerry Wexler. He may be best remembered to some as the man who green-lit the signing of Led Zeppelin to Atlantic Records in 1968, but his ultimate legacy is arguably his role in bringing black music to the (white) masses without sacrificing its honesty or intentions.

As a showbiz writer for Billboard magazine in the early 1950s, he championed jazz artists and didn’t much care for young upstarts who he considered were diluting the form – indeed, his use of the words “rhythm and blues” was initially considered derogatory or dismissive, rather than the heralding of any new innovation.

But his Bronx “moxie” attracted the attention of fledgling mogul Ahmet Ertegun, who invited him into the Atlantic empire as both a writer and producer, his first successes coming with Ray Charles, The Drifters and Ruth Brown.

Wexler was a “suit” with soul, a businessman who knew the worth of a penny but would instinctively roll on a smart gamble. Rather than throw money at a project, he pondered on whether it might reap results by denying it access to all the toys in the box. Aretha Franklin had been making records for eight years before Jerry stripped away the elaborate orchestrations of her cheesy balladry and focused on the heart-wrenching and musically naked vulnerability of “I Never Loved A Man (The Way That I Love You)”.

His work with Wilson Pickett, never the household name he should have been, was undeniably influential. Wexler once hinted that he wanted to produce a soul man with “balls intact – like Marvin Gaye ought to be”, which inadvertently led to Gaye rethinking his career and focusing more on the introspective, weighty concerns of What’s Going On, as opposed to the pop fluff Berry Gordy at Motown was steering him towards.

Wexler’s blend of passion and pragmatism opened doors for industry figures as diverse as Andrew Loog Oldham in The Rolling Stones’ camp or Chas Chandler, the jobbing Geordie bassist who helped catapult Jimi Hendrix to superstar status. He risked his job by facing off against both Ertegun and engineer-on-the-rise Barry Beckett over where the careers of Franklin and surprise Brit contender Dusty Springfield should be heading, but from such friction is great music made.

While still vociferously proclaiming the brilliance of a rock monster like Zeppelin, he was subtly, behind-the-scenes, cajoling nervous songwriter Carole King towards becoming a performer and delivering her era-defining masterpiece Tapestry. Though not credited as producer, he was, in King’s own words, instrumental in her finding her “voice”.

He was on hand to midwife Dylan’s musical (at least) conversion to Christianity on 1979’s Slow Train Coming, again as an almost shamanistic figure with whom the artist could connect to dissect every nuance of the sound and lyric. Mark Knopfler, who played on the album sessions, once claimed that Wexler was perhaps the closest Dylan ever came to embracing a collaborator.

Wexler retired in the late 1990s, not long after his 80th birthday. Ever the consummate music man, when asked, in his twilight years, what he’d like written on his tombstone, his response was “Two words: more bass”.

TERRY STAUNTON

Jerry Wexler, one of R&B’s greatest architects – and the man who signed Led Zeppelin – has died aged 91. According to his son Paul, Wexler’s death was caused by congestive heart failure.

As a journalist for Billboard in the 1940s, Wexler actually came up with the term “R&B”. But it was at Atlantic Records that his genius – as a nurturing executive and astonishingly gifted producer – was most felt.

Wexler produced Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and many others. When he diversified into rock, he brought Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones to the label. He also produced Bob Dylan’s “Slow Train Coming”.

For a full Jerry Wexler obituary, click here.

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Tracy Chapman has confirmed details of her first solo tour in a decade, with a series of 21 European dates announced today (August 14).

The celebrated singer songwriter will play four dates in the UK and Ireland, starting on December 8.

Chapman’s European tour dates which kick off in Brussels on November 12, and coincide with the release of her eighth studio album ‘Our Bright Future.’

The eleven track album (the follow-up to 2005’s ‘Where You Live’) of new songs was recorded in Los Angeles and has been co-produced by Larry Klein.

More information is available from Tracy Chapman’s website here:www.tracychapman.com

The full tour dates and venues are:

Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts (November 12)

Strasbourg, Zenith (18)

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