Although Ralph Ezell enjoyed his greatest commercial success as a co-founder of the country group Shenandoah, he also deserves mention for his session work under producer Rick Hall at the legendary FAME Studios. Born June 26, 1953 in Union, MS, Ezell launched his career in 1979, playing bass in and around the Jackson area alongside local session players including guitarist Jimmy English, pianist David Baroni, keyboardist Chalmers Davis, and drummer Owen Hale. When floods destroyed the Jackson recording studio where the group worked, Hall -- the producer whose FAME Studios virtually defined Alabama's Muscle Shoals soul sound -- hired the musicians, teaming them with local songwriter/guitarist Walt Aldridge to assemble what would become known as the "FAME Gang II." The arrival of Ezell and his colleagues as house band coincided with the studio's shift from RB to country, and during his tenure at FAME the bassist appeared on a series of sessions for Nashville hitmakers including Mac Davis, Jerry Reed, Larry Gatlin, and Marty Stuart, as well as aging soul greats Wilson Pickett and Dobie Gray. Ezell also served as FAME's studio manager, staff engineer, and production assistant -- in the evenings, he moonlighted at the Muscle Shoals club Babe's, where in time he met vocalist Marty Raybon, guitarist Jim Seales, keyboardist Stan Thorn, and drummer Mike McGuire, with whom he founded Shenandoah in 1985. Heralding country music's turn away from the slick, post-#Urban Cowboy approach that dominated the first half of the decade to a more traditional, gritty sound, Shenandoah vaulted to superstar status via 1989's Hall-produced The Road Not Taken, which generated three number one singles: The Church on Cumberland Road, Sunday in the South, and Two Dozen Roses. Although their popularity waned in the decade to follow, the group continued touring for more than two decades -- while on tour with Shenandoah, on November 30, 2007 Ezell suffered a fatal heart attack prior to a scheduled gig in Pickstown, SD. He was just 54 years old. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi