Russell Allen "Rusty" Wier (May 3, 1944 – October 9, 2009) was an American

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

from

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. Wier's career dates back to the 1960s and covers multiple music genres. Wier was the drummer in the Austin garage rock band The Wig, whose 1967 single "Crackin' Up" (a Wier composition) was included on volume 1 of the '' Pebbles'' series of compilation albums. Wier had a major local Texas hit in 1968 with "Watchout" with Gary P. Nunn and The Lavender Hill Express on Sonobeat Records. This was one of the first stereophonic 45s. In the 1970s, Wier switched to country-rock and became a fixture on the burgeoning Austin music scene, and had a cult success with the song "I Heard You Been Layin' My Old Lady". But he is perhaps most famous for his composition "Don't It Make You Wanna Dance," which was a minor pop hit for him, but has been covered by, among others,

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, Chris LeDoux,

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The String Cheese Incident The String Cheese Incident (SCI) is an American jam band from Crested Butte and Telluride, Colorado, formed in 1993. The band is composed of Michael Kang (acoustic/electric mandolin, electric guitar, and violin), Michael Travis (drums and percus ...

, and

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's version of the song was a country hit when it was included on the ''

Urban Cowboy ''Urban Cowboy'' is a 1980 American romantic Western film directed by James Bridges. The plot concerns the love-hate relationship between Buford Uan "Bud" Davis (John Travolta) and Sissy (Debra Winger). The film's success was credited for spur ...

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

. Wier was inducted into the Austin Music Awards Hall of Fame in 2002.

Death

In November 2007, Wier was diagnosed with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. He died on October 9, 2009, aged 65. He is survived by four children.

References

External links

Official website
* 1944 births 2009 deaths Deaths from cancer in Texas American country singer-songwriters American male singer-songwriters Country musicians from Texas Musicians from Corpus Christi, Texas Singers from Austin, Texas People from Hays County, Texas 20th-century American singers Singer-songwriters from Texas 20th-century American male singers {{Texas-bio-stub