Bob Burnett, 71, Performer in the Original Highwaymen, Dies

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/10/arts/music/bob-burnett-of-the-highwaymen-dies-at-71.html?adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1323542253-MIATZ5YBkEdMMUBQPmR9DQ

The New York Times
December 10, 2011
Bob Burnett, 71, Performer in the Original Highwaymen, Dies
By DENNIS HEVESI

Bob Burnett, who blended his smooth tenor tones into the harmonies of the original folk-revival group the Highwaymen (“original” because another group later, somewhat contentiously, adopted the name), died on Wednesday at his home in East Providence, R.I. He was 71.

The cause was brain cancer, his wife, Kathleen, said.

Except for a high-pitched rendition of “Ghost Riders in the Sky” when he stepped onstage in cowboy clothes in first grade, Bob Burnett had never performed in public before 1958, his freshman year at Wesleyan University. That was when he and four other freshmen, pledging for a campus fraternity, were told to put together an entertainment act.

And so Mr. Burnett — along with Dave Fisher, Steve Butts, Chan Daniels and Steve Trott — became the Highwaymen. By the fall of 1961 they had the No. 1 song in the country, “Michael,” a version of the African-American spiritual “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore.”

The Highwaymen performed until 1964. (In the meantime Mr. Trott, who went to law school, was replaced by Gil Robbins.) By then they had recorded eight albums, including “Hootenanny With the Highwaymen,” and “One More Time,” and 10 singles, among them “Cotton Fields” and “Gypsy Rover.” They appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” three times.

Of the six Highwaymen, only Mr. Fisher, the lead tenor and organizer of the group, stayed in the business, as a music director for films and television. Mr. Burnett, after serving in the Army Reserve, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1967 and went on to a long career in law and banking. That course would change, somewhat, more than 20 years later.

In 1990, Mr. Fisher went to a concert in Houston after hearing that the country superstars Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson were performing together as the Highwaymen. The original group filed suit for copyright infringement.

As a solution, the new Highwaymen asked the original performers to open for them at a show in Los Angeles. Having already considered occasionally performing together again, the first group jumped at the chance. In their second run, besides appearing in concerts on weekends, they recorded five more CDs. In 2007, the rock ’n’ roll magazine Blitz called their album “When the Village Was Green” one of the best releases of the year.

Robert Sherwin Burnett was born in Providence on Feb. 7, 1940, to Roberta and Robert Ellis Burnett. Besides his wife of 47 years, the former Kathleen Cullis; he is survived by a son, Michael; two daughters, Melissa Burnett-Testa and Katherine Burnett; and nine grandchildren.

Of the original Highwaymen, only Mr. Trott and Mr. Butts are still living. Mr. Robbins, who replaced Mr. Trott and was the father of the actor Tim Robbins, died in April. Mr. Fisher died in 2010 and Mr. Daniels in 1975.

Although Mr. Burnett had been second tenor during the group’s first run, he was sometimes given the lead by Mr. Fisher in recent years. That was particularly true after he was told he had cancer, his wife said.

“Dave gave him the solo in ‘Down by the Lagan Side,’ because he knew it meant a lot to both of us,” Ms. Burnett said, referring to an Irish love song by Tommy Sands. Her husband, she said, would “look me in the eye when I was in the audience.”

Among the lyrics: “And when we dance, we’ll dance together./When we cry, we’ll hold each other./And when we love, we’ll love forever.”