I am a huge Steve Earle fan. His music is well written, intelligent, funny and touching. Now so is his prose. He is the author of I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive, a novel about Doc Ebersole, who was Hank Williams’ doctor. The book title, for those unfamiliar, is the same as a Hank song.

Here’s a talk in Publisher’s Weekly with the man about his book, his former habit, abortion, Michael Ondaatje, Buddy Bolden, and the big difference between a comma and a period.

Here are links to two wonderful and heartfelt music and video tributes to Russell Dunn featuring songs he wrote and sang posted on YouTube. (Click More for live links.)

Enjoy!

Russell M. Dunn – It’s In The Eyes

Russell “Rusty” Dunn, lead singer of Rusty Dunn and the Gunns. 1958-2011

There is a time, after the death of a close, loved person, when the logistics of their passing, and the somber, assumed tone of relating their leaving leaves us, and we want to find a way to embrace who they were to us when they lived. This is that time now for Russ. Enthusiastic, silly, serious, goofy, sloughing off the details of someone’s despair while fully understanding its impact, creatively aware and awake and alive always, cool to the point of dismissive in the midst of greatest turmoil, always forward looking, and glad to be in the fight. And he was more to each, and to each of us those are personal and kept close.

There are services for Russ in Katonah, NY on Saturday, and a memorial gathering/party for him in Bisbee on Sunday. He leaves beloved and departs with each of us knowing more and feeling better for having known him.

After battling the effects of a brain aneurysm that left him in a coma for eight days, Russell Dunn died at approximately 4:15 p.m. in Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday, March 15, 2011.

As he expressly wished, the previous day Russ was disconnected from life support and moved to a hospice facility, where he died with family members and several of his children by his side. Russ will be flown to New York and buried next to his father.

Russ was deeply loved and will be truly missed by everyone who knew him in his adopted home of Bisbee, and beyond.

My friend Russ suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm on Monday, four days after his 53rd birthday. He’s at Barrows Neurological Institute in Phoenix. His family – his mother, brother, son Evan and son Dallas – are at his side.

I saw him in Tucson on Tuesday. He was in a coma and remains in one.

An operation on Wednesday cleared a brain clot and cleaned the aneurysm as best as was possible. All that is left now is to wait to see what, if any, neurological function returns. All our hopes and prayers are with him.

Stumbled across a new and ongoing review of Chasing Medical Miracles today. The review is on a site called Cure Talk.

The site is owned by a company called TrialX, which, apparently, is less scary than it sounds. The statement of their purpose on their site says:” TrialX is developed by Applied Informatics Inc., a New York based company with extensive experience in the areas of Health Information Technology, Computer Science, Medicine and Clinical Research. Besides the qualifications, our team has balanced bold thinking and new ideas with real-world challenges in the healthcare industry.”

Their site is worth a look, as are their tweets.