Remembering our Friend Tim Krekel October 10, 1950 - June 24, 2009

Partying w/Tim Krekel and the unforgettable Mary. Sadly for us all they are both with the angels now. New Years Eve 2007

Last night I got some bad news about our friend, Tim Krekel. Tim was diagnosed with cancer back in March of this year and unfortunately he passed away yesterday. Tim was only 58 years old but in his short life he touched so many people with his gentle ways and his glorious music. The local Louisville newspaper, the Courier-Journal wrote a nice piece about Tim that the Tennessean newspaper also picked up. Here's a snippet from the newspaper story.

Musician Tim Krekel dies

By Paula Burba

pburba@courier-journal.com

Tim Krekel, a musician whose career started in Louisville before he was a teenager and soared to two stints as lead guitar for Jimmy Buffet's band and a reputation in Nashville as a hit songwriter, died Wednesday afternoon at his Louisville home. He was 58.

Krekel died of cancer, which he had been fighting since a diagnosis and surgery in March, according to his family.

"He had a major, successful career, but he was still based here. He's just a hometown boy," said friend John Gage.

Krekel "had a way of writing and performing and singing that just put people in touch with a more spiritual sense. He was all about that," Gage said.

Stacy Owen, program director at WFPK-FM, where Krekel was a perennial favorite of listeners, said Krekel "did so much to champion the local music scene."

"I'm sure if you talked to a lot of local musicians here in town, they would consider Tim a mentor," Owen said.

Owen said the station would "spend the day (Thursday) playing his music and celebrating his life."

"I think the wonderful thing about Tim is, he shared himself in his songs," Owen said.

Because of our financial situation we weren't able to go out to the clubs to see Tim play for quite some time but we followed what was happening with Tim through email. We also played our Krekel cd's almost every weekend and I even posted some of his videos here on two occassions. The last time we saw Tim he teased me about the check off list of his songs that I'd printed so that I could more easily request songs while he played.

He was such a good man. I never heard him say anything bad about anyone and I never heard anyone say anything bad about him. We are going to miss him terribly and we hope wherever he is now that he's making music.

Here are a few videos of Tim playing the music he and the rest of us just loved.

For Tim, Love is what it was all about. Here he is at Zena's playing with Terry Adams of NRBQ

Unfortunately this next video doesn't have the video and soundtrack in sync so you don't want to watch the video but you will want to listen to the song. It's truly a beautiful song. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

And here's one of my all time favorites - All Night Radio

Farewell Tim. We hope that we get to see you again in another life.

WFPK has a page set up on their website for condolences that is full of personal stories from friends of Tim. WFPK will also be playing Tim's songs all day. You can tune in here.

Update: There will be a Memorial Service at the Vernon at 4 p.m. for friends and family.