Gary Church, Sideman Extraordinaire, Dies at 61

In 2012, Gary Church wrote a 135-page book which he titled The Autobiography of a Nobody: The Life and Times of a Sideman. Hardly an accurate or entirely appropriate title for the life story of a talented multi-instrumentalist whose career as a working musician spanned nearly 50 years, who worked with some of the biggest names in the music business, and who was inducted into the Western Swing Hall of Fame. Gary started out playing with a number of bands in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, that included the Desert City Six and the infamous Barehanded Wolf Chokers Old Time Dixieland Band, Inc. He was soon off to Disney World in Florida where he also connected with Bill Allred’s Reedy Creek Jazz Band. After a brief stay as replacement trombonist with Jim Cullum’s Happy Jazz Band in San Antonio, he next hit the road with the Freddy Powers Show to work with the likes of Willie Nelson, Al Hirt, Peanuts Hucko, Wild Bill Davison, and Roger Miller. He was in the house band at Willie Nelson’s club in Austin, Texas, traveled for 10 years with Merle Haggard’s Strangers, and worked for most of the 1990s with Mel Tillis and the Statesiders in Branson, Missouri. Back in Phoenix, he has been a mainstay with Cheryl Thurston’s Mardi Gras Jazz Band and Joe Hopkins’ 52nd Street aggregation. For the past five years, Gary has had to deal with serious health issues, including multiple