Dennis Linde, one of country music’s most clever and unique songwriters, has died. He was 63.
His songwriting credits include “Burning Love” (Elvis Presley), “Goodbye Earl” (Dixie Chicks), “Callin’ Baton Rouge” (Garth Brooks, New Grass Revival), “Bubba Shot The Jukebox” (Mark Chesnutt), “It Sure Is Monday” (Mark Chesnutt), “The Talkin’ Song Repair Blues” (Alan Jackson), “Queen of My Double-Wide Trailer” (Sammy Kershaw), “John Deere Green” (Joe Diffie), “Had a Dream (For the Heart)” (The Judds), “I’m Gonna Get You” (Eddy Raven)”, “My Baby’s Gone” (Sawyer Brown), “Night is Fallin’ In My Heart” (Diamond Rio), “Wild Love” (Joy Lynn White), “What’ll You Do About Me” (Randy Travis, The Forester Sisters, Doug Supernaw), “Where Have All The Average People Gone” (Roger Miller), and an obscure favorite of mine, “Hold On, Elroy” (Dude Mowrey).
Linde was the BMI Songwriter of the Year in 1994. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001.
Sixty-three ! That’s too damned young
Linde was a great writer with many excellent songs that were merely album cuts. Nice catch on the Dude Mowray cut – I always thought that song, in the hands of a better known artist, could have been a big hit
My personal favorite Dennis Linde songs were “Long Long Texas Road” which was given a definitive reading by the late Roy Drusky, and “Tom Green County Fair” sung by the legendary Roger Miller . Both songs date back to around 1970.
RIP
And, he made a great late 1970s album on Monument, Under the Eye, which I still enjoy listening to.
I went to Normandy High School with Dennis. As a teen I followed his band around the St. Louis, MO area. I took up playing a Fender guitar due to Dennis’s influence. I never kept it up to his level. He was a great young man, very plesant and likeable. I was not able to keep in touch when he joined the Navy and moved to Nashville. He was a positive influence on my young life. I’m over joyed that he had a great life and family in Nashville.
I did not know he was dead, until I read this. One of my favoutite songs I miss in the above list is “There goes my heart again”. It could still be a hit in 2008 ! Thank you, Dennis. May you rest in peace.