Biography
Born July 10, 1938, in Brady, Texas, Dave Kirby earned lasting recognition as the co-writer of the enduring classic “(Is Anybody Going To) San Antone.” A singer, songwriter, and session guitarist from his earliest years, he developed his skills on the instrument as a boy amid a musically rich family circle that counted his uncle, Big Bill Lister—who frequently opened for Hank Williams and performed with the Drifting Cowboys—among its members. When Lister played local Texas dates, he began bringing the seven-year-old Kirby onstage.
Kirby launched his professional career in 1955 by moving to Albuquerque, where he performed country music on a local radio station. He soon turned to songwriting, and Buck Owens cut “Down by the River” in 1963; Rose Maddox and Porter Wagoner quickly followed with versions of his material. During the early 1960s Kirby also spent a year as guitarist in Willie Nelson’s band. Nelson and Hank Cochran encouraged him to relocate to Nashville, a step he finally took in 1967. There he became a prized session guitarist while also joining Ray Price’s Pamper Music publishing company alongside Nelson, Cochran, Roger Miller, and Harlan Howard. As a solo artist he signed with Fred Foster’s Monument Records and scored a hit in 1969 with “Her and the Car and the Mobile Home.”
Kirby and Glenn Martin had written “(Is Anybody Going To) San Antone” in 1967, yet the song remained unrecorded for three years until Charley Pride, initially reluctant, added it to his repertoire; the track rose to become Pride’s third number-one single and held the top spot for two weeks in early 1970. Subsequent successes included Merle Haggard’s “Sidewalks of Chicago,” George Jones and Tammy Wynette’s “God’s Gonna Getcha (For That),” Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings’s “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang,” and Gene Watson’s “Memories to Burn.” In total Kirby composed more than 300 songs that found their way to artists ranging from Ray Charles to Kitty Wells to Faron Young. Dot Records released his solo album This Is Dave Kirby: Singer, Picker, Writer in 1973.
In 1985 Kirby married Leona Williams, formerly wed to Haggard, and the couple settled in Branson, Missouri, where they appeared regularly at the town’s many dinner theaters. Kirby died on April 17, 2004; several months afterward his first new album in two decades, Mr. Songwriter, was issued posthumously.
Kirby launched his professional career in 1955 by moving to Albuquerque, where he performed country music on a local radio station. He soon turned to songwriting, and Buck Owens cut “Down by the River” in 1963; Rose Maddox and Porter Wagoner quickly followed with versions of his material. During the early 1960s Kirby also spent a year as guitarist in Willie Nelson’s band. Nelson and Hank Cochran encouraged him to relocate to Nashville, a step he finally took in 1967. There he became a prized session guitarist while also joining Ray Price’s Pamper Music publishing company alongside Nelson, Cochran, Roger Miller, and Harlan Howard. As a solo artist he signed with Fred Foster’s Monument Records and scored a hit in 1969 with “Her and the Car and the Mobile Home.”
Kirby and Glenn Martin had written “(Is Anybody Going To) San Antone” in 1967, yet the song remained unrecorded for three years until Charley Pride, initially reluctant, added it to his repertoire; the track rose to become Pride’s third number-one single and held the top spot for two weeks in early 1970. Subsequent successes included Merle Haggard’s “Sidewalks of Chicago,” George Jones and Tammy Wynette’s “God’s Gonna Getcha (For That),” Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings’s “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang,” and Gene Watson’s “Memories to Burn.” In total Kirby composed more than 300 songs that found their way to artists ranging from Ray Charles to Kitty Wells to Faron Young. Dot Records released his solo album This Is Dave Kirby: Singer, Picker, Writer in 1973.
In 1985 Kirby married Leona Williams, formerly wed to Haggard, and the couple settled in Branson, Missouri, where they appeared regularly at the town’s many dinner theaters. Kirby died on April 17, 2004; several months afterward his first new album in two decades, Mr. Songwriter, was issued posthumously.
Albums
