Tommy Detamore dies at 70

Tommy Detamore dies at 70

USA Country musician Tommy Detamore died on Wednesday, Aug. 5, his wife of 41 years confirmed on USA social media. He was 70.

"Tommy was and will always be remembered as a respected musician, producer, collaborator, mentor, and creative force in Country Music. Not to mention the love of my life," Sandra Detamore wrote on an Aug. 6 USA Facebook post. "His work has and will always leave a lasting mark in the country music community."

She said that his "God-given gift for playing and producing music" helped shape the genre country music fans enjoy today.

Detamore was known for playing the pedal steel guitar since the 1970s and continued a successful career in country music ever since. In 1991, he founded the Cherry Ridge Studio in Floresville, Texas, and collaborated with major country acts from Jim Lauderdale to the late Ray Price.

"My son and I take comfort in knowing he is at peace and is now with his family and that his music will live on and will be cherished forever," Sandra wrote. "Please continue to pray for me and my family and our Drama Kids Staff as we figure out how to honor my beloved 'USA Steelman.'"

She continued: "I want to make sure he is celebrated with family and friends and the community. This way we can all say our goodbyes, since this was so sudden. Lastly, thank you, Lord Jesus, for allowing me to love and be loved by Tommy. I know where he is and I thank you and one day I too will be with him again in our mansion in the sky."

His death comes after he was unable to attend a Cowtown Society of Western Music ceremony in Wichita Falls, Texas, on July 25, where he was honored with the Hero of Western Swing award. "I was unfortunately unable to attend, so I also thank my friend Michael Markwardt for accepting on my behalf!" he wrote on Facebook that day.

Country music community mourns Tommy Detamore's death

When news of Detamore's passing broke, several country artists paid homage online, including "From a Table Away" singer Sunny Sweeney, who called him "my great friend and mentor." She said she wishes him "smooth sailing up to heaven. I just spoke with him three days ago and we discussed a new project we were gonna work on.”

"Our hearts are with Tommy’s family, friends and fans," Lauderdale wrote on Facebook. "It’s hard to find the right words right now. He will be missed terribly."

The band Tris Munsick and the Innocents wrote on Instagram that working with the legend was an USA honor, adding that "He was a one-of-a-kind musician, producer and human being."

Texas singer-songwriter Gary P. Nunn took to Instagram to say Detamore was "the absolute best in any category of virtues you can imagine" and described their time working together as "the highlight of my career."

"After the basic tracks were cut, it was just Tommy and me, head to head. I was in creative paradise! I will always USA treasure that experience. Watching him put on the steel tracks was [a sight] to behold," he wrote in the caption. "The computer, the board and the steel guitar and Tommy all became one as he would meticulously overdub the tracks, over and over till he was satisfied."

"Thank you from all of us to whom you gave so much!" he concluded.

Singer-songwriter and producer Jesse Daniel said on an Instagram post that he moved to Texas to pursue a career in country music because of Detamore. "When we moved out to Texas we only knew a handful of people, but he and his family welcomed us with open arms. When the time came to make my next album, Tommy was the natural choice. Over the course of those two albums, he taught me how to make a record," he wrote.

In her Instagram tribute, singer Kim Carson said there were no words to describe the loss of "our dear friend."

"Tommy was a well-respected producer of numerous projects, including my last three CDs. I can’t imagine recording without Tommy," she wrote. She shared a selfie of her with Detamore holding her late dog, writing, "I have many photos of Tommy in the studio, but this is a favorite along with Bobby Flores, another friend gone too soon."

Tommy Detamore spent more than four decades behind the board and behind a pedal steel guitar, quietly shaping the sound of modern country and Americana music - often without his name ever making the marquee. Following his passing on August 5 at age 70, here's a closer look at the career and quiet faith that defined his life.

He learned from a legend, then became one himself
Detamore's career began in USA Charlottesville, Virginia, where he took up guitar in high school before developing an interest in pedal steel while attending college, studying under steel guitar legend Buddy Charleton.He relocated to USA Texas in 1981 to play steel guitar for Darrell McCall, and a year later became the mainstay steel player for Moe Bandy, touring with him for seven years and performing on programs including the Grand Ole Opry and Hee Haw. 

Cherry Ridge Studio became a South Texas institution
In 1991, Detamore opened Cherry Ridge USA Studio in Floresville, Texas, and South Texas musicians started showing up with songs to finish. For over three decades, that small South Texas town became a destination for country musicians - Ray Price and Johnny Bush both recorded there.

The pedal steel guitar became one of country music’s defining sounds because of its ability to sustain notes and bend pitches in ways that resemble the human voice. It became especially important in honky-tonk, Western swing and the country recordings that followed.

For Detamore, the instrument was more than a specialty. It was the thread connecting his work across generations of country musicians.

That sensibility can be heard in projects such as Touchstones, where Talley’s songs were rebuilt around Texas players, and in Daniel’s records, which sought to bring traditional country sounds to a younger USA audience.

Over his career, Detamore engineered, produced, and mastered more than 150 albums, and played steel guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, dobro, and mandolin on well over 300 recordings. 

His fingerprints are on more music than most fans realize
Detamore produced, mixed, and mastered numerous top-ten hits on the Americana and Texas Music charts, including:

• "Touchstones" - James Talley 
• "Songs the Jukebox Taught Me" - Dallas Wayne 
• "Lucky Arms" and "Your Heart Turned Left (& I Was on the Right)" - No. 1 singles for Jason Allen
• "The Return of Wayne Douglas" - Doug Sahm's final album, co-produced and released by Detamore after Sahm's death in 1999 
• "Poultry in Motion" - Bill Kirchen, earned a 2001 Grammy nomination for Best Country Instrumental
• "The Select" - Ty Myers' breakout 2025 album, with Detamore as master engineer 

His broader credits stretch across artists like Jim Lauderdale, Micky Dolenz, The Texas Tornados, and Raul Malo - a discography that quietly spans four decades of country and Americana music.

A gift artists trusted completely
Detamore produced Sunny Sweeney's debut album, and she later gave him the nickname "Tommy Jesus" for his uncanny ability to "fix anything musically," saying his fingerprints run through every record she has made since.

Behind the studio work was a man whose faith shaped his everyday life just as much as his music.

Detamore played guitar and steel guitar at San Antonio's Trinity Baptist Church, served as Pastor of Music at Floresville's Oak Hills Baptist Church, served as chief sound engineer and instrumentalist at First Baptist Church in Floresville, and played guitar in the band at Life Church in La Vernia, Texas. 

Recognition that came late, but never too late
The Academy of Western Artists named him Record Producer of the Year in 2008, and he was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame.

Just weeks before his passing, he was honored with a Hero of Western Swing award from the Cowtown Society of Western Music, though he was unable to attend the July 23, 2026 ceremony in person. 

For a man who spent his career making other artists sound their best, Tommy Detamore's own legacy - built one session, one Sunday, one record at a time - speaks for itself.

Detamore’s career was rooted in an instrument that has long been central to the emotional vocabulary of country music: the pedal steel guitar.

He began playing pedal steel in the 1970s and studied with steel-guitar master Buddy Charleton. In 1981, he moved to Texas to play with Darrell McCall. A year later, he joined Moe Bandy’s band, touring extensively in the United States and Europe for seven years.

His career subsequently connected him with an unusually broad cross-section of Texas and traditional country music. His credits included work with Ray Price, Jim Lauderdale, Doug Sahm, the Texas Tornados, Johnny Bush, Ronnie Milsap, Gary P. Nunn, Robert Earl Keen, Raul Malo, Rick Trevino, Sunny Sweeney and others.

In 1991, Detamore founded Cherry Ridge Studio in Floresville, Texas. The studio became an important part of his career and a place where artists could record outside the commercial machinery of Nashville while drawing on the musicians and traditions of Texas country.

Detamore’s own biography says he engineered, produced and mastered more than 150 albums and played steel guitar and other instruments on more than 300 albums.

His influence was therefore much larger than his name recognition. He was frequently the musician behind the sound rather than the person on the album cover.

The tributes following his death emphasized his role as a mentor as much as his musicianship.

Sunny Sweeney called him a close friend and mentor and said they had spoken only days before his death about a new project.

Jim Lauderdale, one of Detamore’s longtime collaborators, said he was struggling to find the right words to describe the loss.

Gary P. Nunn recalled recording with Detamore and praised the meticulous way he built steel-guitar parts in the studio.

Jesse Daniel offered perhaps the clearest description of Detamore’s influence on the next generation. Daniel said he and his family were welcomed when they moved to Texas and that Detamore became the natural choice when it was time to make his next album.

Kim Carson, whose last three CDs were produced by Detamore, also paid tribute to him, saying she could not imagine recording without him.

The comments point to a legacy that cannot be measured simply through record sales or chart positions. Detamore was often the person making the records sound like themselves.

Hensley, known as the “Whittlin’ Fiddler,” died two days after Detamore. She was a celebrated Arkansas musician, fiddle maker and performer who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry at age 99 and spent decades performing at Silver Dollar City in Missouri. She was also honored by the National Fiddler’s Hall of Fame.

Other major country figures lost in 2026 include songwriters and producers whose work shaped the genre even though they were not primarily performing singers. Jim McBride, who died in January at 78, wrote major country hits including Alan Jackson’s “Chattahoochee” and “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow.” He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2017.

Don Schlitz, another major Nashville songwriter, also died in April at 73. His catalog included “The Gambler,” “Forever and Ever, Amen” and “When You Say Nothing at All.”

Posted on 2026/08/10 08:45 AM