Coda: Remembering Music Makers North Texas Lost in 2025

Ace Frehley, co-founder and guitarist for Kiss, wasn’t a Texan. He was a fairly frequent visitor to Dallas stages as a solo artist, shredding at shows at Trees and The Echo Lounge & Music Hall. So, when he passed away in October, we took the time to republish online videos from some of those performances. John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne likewise was not a Texan, but North Texas’ love of metal runs so deep that we consider the Black Sabbath founder an honorary Texan and wrote an obituary following his death in July.

2025 saw dozens of national and international music industry figures give their swan song — including Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys), Marianne Faithfull, Roberta Flack, Garth Hudson (The Band) and Sam Moore (Sam & Dave). Since we’re not St. Peter and don’t maintain a full roster of the departed, and our heart is in Texas, we can’t capture the whole of music’s loss in 2025. We can, however, recall some of the Texas and Dallas musical figures whose work and lives brought joy to the music scene and whose passing left us wishing for another encore.

Chris Penn, Good Records

April 23
Calling Penn a record store co-owner and band manager hardly does justice to his role in Dallas. We prefer “legendary” and a “pillar” of Dallas music.

Penn, manager for North Texas rock legends Polyphonic Spree and Tripping Daisy, was hospitalized in March after a fall at the record store, causing paralysis from the neck down due to a rare condition that made his spinal canal and spine to fuse.

“Chris’ generosity, kindness, and cultural mentorship to me and my brother back in high school meant much more than he probably ever realized,” one friend wrote online, echoing many others. “I’ll never forget kicking with CP ‘interning’ at Good Records or helping out at the Holiday Extravaganzas, always making me feel valued, included, and COOL. Pillar of the community is an understatement. He’s the bedrock.”

Joe Ely

Dec. 15
The vast plains of the Texas Panhandle weren’t big enough to contain Joe Ely, “a titan of Texas music who influenced multiple generations of artists with his insurgent roots rock that helped usher in the Americana and Texas Country boom of the ’90s,” as our obit put it.

“Similar to contemporaries Townes Van Zandt and Willie Nelson, slotting Ely into the pantheon of Texas musical greats is both easy and sensible, but falls short of the impact he had across not only geographic borders but musical boundaries. Global icons ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Joe Strummer and the Clash counted themselves as fans first, followed by friends, then collaborators of Ely’s,” Observer News Editor Kelly Dearmore wrote.

With both his solo recordings and work as a member of The Flatlanders, a trio that included Lubbock natives Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Ely helped define West Texas cool and created a signature Texas country style that sent reverberations around the world. 

Robert “Bob” Crawford

Aug. 10
“Keyboard Bob,” as Crawford was called, was known for carrying a keyboard around Deep Ellum. While he could play and often jumped on stage with his keys to lend a hand to bands, he also had another nickname, “Deep Ellum Bob,” that was more appropriate. He was, according to his many friends, an integral part of the spirit and fabric of Deep Ellum, simply by being there and being himself.

“Crawford’s life, like the neighborhood he haunted, may never have been neat or bow-on-top tidy. He could be endearing and frustrating, magnetic and difficult, sometimes in the same afternoon. And yet, in his unpredictable way, his presence made Deep Ellum feel more like itself — an all-inclusive neighborhood that values individuality, authenticity and creativity above all else,” Observer contributor Jamie Valhala wrote after Crawford’s death. “… In the end, Bob’s story — like Deep Ellum’s — is sometimes messy, always vibrant and full of contradiction. He could be frustrating. He could be kind. He could be the loudest presence in the room or quietly off to the side. But his impact was undeniable, measured in the sheer number of people with a Bob story to tell.”

Those stories were enough to help inspire a movie, the biography His Name Is Bob, co-directed by Lisa Johnson Mitchell and Sebastian Lee. Mitchell described him as “an angel” who “invariably came up to me and others and said the right thing at the right time — words of comfort, encouragement and love.” 

Sly Stone

June 9
Although he was raised in Northern California, Sylvester Stewart — aka Sly Stone — was born in Denton. Since he was the man behind the iconic funk and soul band Sly and the Family Stone, we’re going to go ahead and claim him as a local. After all, Denton is a musical city, so perhaps there’s something in the water that helped spawn the musical genius who helped lead the development of psychedelic soul in the 1960s and 1970s.

Sly and the Family Stone’s breakout album Stand is one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s Top 500 albums, tinged with social commentary and producing hits such as “Everyday People,” “I Want to Take You Higher,” and the title track, “Stand!”

Sly and the Family Stone was known for breaking barriers as a multi-racial, multi-gender band ahead of its time in many ways, and its blend of funk, soul and psychedelic rock, along with a positive message, has inspired several generations of musicians since.

Flaco Jimenez

July 31
Although San Antonio isn’t exactly considered part of the Dallas metro area, we’re going to bend the rules and bit and call it a suburb to note the passing of Leonardo “Flaco” Jimenez. The Alamo City-born accordionist, singer and songwriter was the son and grandson of musicians and turned that family tree into a mighty oak. The Grammy-winning artist helped popularize conjunto, norteño and tejano to new audiences. He was a member of the Texas Tornados and Los Super Seven, and recorded songs with Ry Cooder, the Rolling Stones, Dwight Yoakum, Bob Dylan and countless others. Check out his album, Partners, to get a sense of his work that spanned across various genres. If your notion of accordion and/or polka music is limited to the Schmenge Brothers, you need to give Jimenez a listen, and maybe check out one of his Cajun influences, Clifton Chernier, while you’re at it.

Cavin Yarbrough

June 19
Yarbrough was half of the 1980s R&B duo Yarbrough & Peoples, along with Alisa Delois Peoples. The pair of Dallas natives who met as children, took piano lessons from the same teacher and attended the same church. After playing with various bands, they became a duo act and hit the charts with the million-selling single “Don’t Stop the Music” in 1980. The blend of R&B and funk sat at No. 1 on the R&B chart for five weeks and hit number 19 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1981.