Countryobit: Tompall Glaser

Tompall Glaser, outlaw movement country singer, has died.

Glaser was joint-owner of the Nashville studios which came to be known as Hillbilly Central - Glaser Brothers Sound Studios. It was here that the first million-selling country album, Wanted! The Outlaws was recorded. This brought Tompall together with Waylon Jennings and others to create a hotchpotch mix of tracks that hadn't found homes elsewhere; on paper it sounds unappealing but it found an enthusiastic audience.

Glaser's back-up vocals can be heard on Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire; and he and his brothers had numerous country hits in their own right. But it was as businesspeople that the brothers really shone - quickly establishing a publishing company and those studios; racking up production credits.

Tompall went solo in 1973, but after falling out with Waylon Jennings over money the Glaser Brothers reunited towards the end of the decade. It was a short-lived comeback, though; by 1982 Glaser was solo again. He released a final album in 1986, and shortly afterwards Hillbilly Central was sold off, closing the chapter on the outlaw movement.

Tompall Glaser died Tuesday 13th August 2013; he was 79 and had been ill for some time.