CMT : News : Last Exit: Notable Country Music Deaths of 2010

Jimmy Dean

Country music lost some giants this past year, among them two members of the Country Music Hall of Fame, writers of classic hits, behind-the-scenes movers and shakers and a legendary producer who broadened country music's appeal enormously by persuading the day's top pop singers to record it. Solomon Burke, 70, soul music dynamo who frequently acknowledged his country music influences and who in 2006 recorded the country-flavored album Nashville, Oct. 10 in Amsterdam.
Robert Byrd, 92, U.S. Senator from West Virginia and noted fiddle player, June 28 in Fairfax, Va. He recorded the album U.S. Senator Robert Byrd Mountain Fiddler in 1978 and followed it with appearances on the Grand Ole Opry and Hee Haw.
Fred Carter Jr., 76, Nashville session guitarist who played on such hits as Marty Robbins' "El Paso," Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer" and Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay," June 17 in Nashville. He was the father of country artist Deana Carter.