Wes McGhee obituary

Other lives: British musician whose songwriting made an impact among country and folk music lovers in Texas

My friend Wes McGhee, the guitarist and songwriter, who has died aged 77, released 10 solo studio albums between 1978 and 2006, many of them recorded in Austin, Texas, where he made a name for himself.

Recognised there as a songwriter who really understood the country tradition, despite hailing from Leicestershire, for many years he travelled between the UK and the US to record and tour – and to produce other musicians’ records.

In addition his Wes McGhee Band, of which I was a member, came to be used by a number of US country acts, including Gail Davies, Heather Myles, Kimmie Rhodes and Wanda Jackson, when they toured Europe.

Born in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, Wes was the son of Victor, a civil engineer and church organist, and his wife, Raymonde, a wartime draughtswoman. By his early teens at Lutterworth grammar school the guitar had become his constant companion and from leaving school to the late 1970s he supported himself by playing in bands, including the Desperados and Grizelda.

In his early 20s he secured a solo record deal in the UK, but his refusal to compromise – particularly in his determination to blend psychedelic rock with country music – left him stranded in contract limbo for years. Many musicians would have folded, but Wes quietly accumulated songs instead.

When he finally emerged into the public eye, he did so on his own terms, recording albums that reflected a restless musical curiosity. In 1978 he travelled to Austin for a two-week holiday, but ended up staying for eight months, during which time he was picked up by local roots musicians as a collaborator and songwriter.

His first album, Long Nights and Banjo Music, was released that year, and there were regular new offerings over the next three decades. He had producing credits with, among others, Freddie Krc, Ponty Bone, Roxy Gordon and the singer-songwriter Terry Clarke, which whom he also released a joint album, Night Ride To Birmingham, in 2006.

When I joined Wes’s band in the early 90s, I saw his authenticity up close. He rarely used a set list; songs were launched with a nod, a half smile, or a fragment of an introduction, and you were expected to be inside the music almost instantly.

Aside from his solo and band-based activities, Wes showed his versatility by writing the score for the 1979 Children’s Film Foundation movie Big Wheels and Sailor, as well as a haunting soundtrack for Channel 4’s Voices in Exile documentary in 1998. He also had a spell in 2001 at the National Theatre, performing on stage in Nicholas Hytner production of The Winter’s Tale.

Away from music he played cricket for decades as a bustling bowler for the London-based Chadwick club, made up largely of actors and musicians, which is where he and I first met. He was an uncompromising, cheerfully combative figure on the cricket field, and later I discovered that the same stubborn independence drove his musical activities, although in all walks of life he was a thoughtful, drily funny and generous man.

Wes is survived by his wife, Carolyn, daughter, Renee, and sister, Yvonne.