He succumbed to turburculus at the age of 35. Yet his music opened up the whole MEME of country music. He really got a decade in with records and the emergent radio. Unfortunately most of that music from them was poorly recorded not allowing easy upgrades to our listening sensitivities. Like Caruso his music is hard to recover. It was all early days and he was not around to ever do a redo with better gear. At least we do not lose our past so easily now and that is good