For as artificial and anonymous as the internet is alleged to be, the truth is that a real country music blogging community has been built over the past few years, so that grief can be felt for someone you’ve only known digitally.

Maybe that’s the power of great writing. The humanity can’t be separated from what’s written.

Very sad that Chris will never post a new post or comment again, but grateful that he touched so many as a writer and as a person.

i only knew chris n. as a “voice” from the legendary “9513″, but what kind of voice he was is perhaps expressed best by that line above, which i borrowed from chely wright’s “it was”.

besides being a prolific writer und critic of the genre, he was to those “9513″-threads what the fizzy stuff is to a coke, the cherry brandy to my grandma’s black forrest gateau, the moustache to an alan jackson cd-cover – without it, it just wasn’t the real deal.

“…it’s what you leave behind you, when you go…” is another fitting line from a great song to express my feelings about the much too early passing away of someone, who worked so brilliantly on keeping minds open in a more and more fundamentalistic world, just by using a harmless keyboard as his “weapon” of choice.

what a sad day this is in country universe. then again, if there is a country music blog as well as that famous jukebox with a country song, where chris n. is now, then some souls surely will have a reason to cheer.

he must have been doin’ something right, if his name will always be connected with some of the most entertaining moments i had, when spending some time with the ups and downs of the genre in all its glorious imperfection.

the web-clowns of this world are mourning over one of their best.

r.i.p chris neal