{"id":283,"date":"2011-12-13T22:42:25","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T22:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.wordpress.com\/?p=283"},"modified":"2011-12-13T22:42:25","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T22:42:25","slug":"dan-bee-spears-bass-player-for-willie-nelson-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2011\/12\/13\/dan-bee-spears-bass-player-for-willie-nelson-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan \u201cBee\u201d Spears bass player for Willie Nelson dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mceTemp mceIEcenter\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/whisnews21.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/12\/dan.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-286\" title=\"dan\" src=\"http:\/\/whisnews21.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/12\/dan.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"269\" \/><\/a>WILLIE NELSON\u2019S BASS PLAYER FOR OVER 40 YEARS<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<p align=\"center\"><strong><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.tennessean.com\/tunein\/tag\/dan-spears\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dan \u201cBee\u201d Spears<\/a>, who spent more than 40 years as a lynchpin of <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.tennessean.com\/tunein\/tag\/willie-nelson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Willie Nelson<\/a>\u2019s band, died Thursday night of exposure to the elements, after slipping and falling outside his Nashville property. Mr. Spears, who began performing with Nelson when he was 19 years old, was 62. He was born Dan Edward Spears in Helotes, Texas, outside San Antonio. Raised in a musical family (his father was a fiddler), he joined Nelson\u2019s band in 1968, at the recommendation of legendary steel player Jimmy Day. He remained with Nelson through the Country Music Hall of Famer\u2019s transition from Nashville-based country music to the heights of the freewheeling \u201cOutlaw Movement\u201d and into the new century. Mr. Spears\u2019 steady bass work was a key element in Nelson\u2019s Family Band. When Nelson would take experimental guitar excursions, Mr. Spears provided steadying bass lines that kept things from moving out of bounds. At other times during concerts and on albums, he and Nelson would play melodic figures together, shifting as one. He played on Nelson\u2019s best-known albums, including <em>Red Headed Stranger <\/em>and <em>Stardust<\/em>, and also recorded with notables including <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.tennessean.com\/tunein\/?s=Waylon+Jennings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Waylon Jennings<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.tennessean.com\/tunein\/tag\/leon-russell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Leon Russell,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.tennessean.com\/tunein\/tag\/guy-clark\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Guy Clark<\/a>and <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.tennessean.com\/tunein\/tag\/jerry-jeff-walker\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jerry Jeff Walker<\/a>. When not on the road with Nelson, Mr. Spears often performed around Nashville in a combo called Travelin\u2019 Light, with Richie Albright, the longtime drummer for Jennings, and bluesy singer-songwriter-guitarist Ricky Ray. In addition to his musical work, Mr. Spears appeared in movies including <em>Honeysuckle Rose<\/em> and <em>Songwriter<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">This article forwarded for publication\u00a0by <a href=\"mailto:html.martymartel@earthlink.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marty Martel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WILLIE NELSON\u2019S BASS PLAYER FOR OVER 40 YEARS Dan \u201cBee\u201d Spears, who spent more than 40 years as a lynchpin of Willie Nelson\u2019s band, died Thursday night of exposure to the elements, after slipping and falling outside his Nashville property. Mr. Spears, who began performing with Nelson when he was 19 years old, was 62. He was born Dan Edward Spears in Helotes, Texas, outside San Antonio. Raised in a musical family (his father was a fiddler), he joined Nelson\u2019s band in 1968, at the recommendation of legendary steel player<a href=\"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2011\/12\/13\/dan-bee-spears-bass-player-for-willie-nelson-dies\/\" class=\"read-more\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}