It was a nasty shock to look up Chris Whitley on the heels of playing his “Assassin Song” on the most recent A Touching Display and find out that he had just died. Messenger Records, who released many of Whitley’s albums, has an excellent overview of his life and career up at their site.

Whitley passed away on November 20th of lung cancer; I have only ever heard one of his albums, I’ve never so much as seen him live, but it was hard not to feel a loss that was more surprising the more I thought about it. Maybe it was because his presence, his voice was so central to his music as I’ve heard it; maybe it’s that three generations of women in my immediate family smoke and I’ve always hated the thought of lung cancer; maybe it was reading on his website that he was planning to get married; maybe it’s just that Hotel Vast Horizon was there for me through a long, difficult winter.

Condolences to all who knew and loved him.