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How have you been stratman? I remember The Ross Emery Band very well. You also had a great following in Naples, and were a very good band.
As far as Barry, he had Prostate cancer, and then Thyroid cancer. He had a few strokes in February and everything was down hill for him after that.
Bob Seger's early recordings were The Silver Bullet Band, but there was a point where they seemed to make a major jump in their talent. That was because Bob started using The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section on all his recordings. "Main Street", "Night Moves", "Old Time Rock & Roll" and that whole period was Barry and the boys. Seger got tired of spending weeks in the studio and ending up with what he was getting. The Silver Bullet Band was fine live, but not studio musicians. So, he went to the best and they'd knock those classics out in one take. They were something to see in the studio. Solid as a rock with all that rhythmic motion in their grooves. I could talk for days about what I learned playing with Barry and watching The Rhythm Section in the studio. Barry was really a great guy with an endless amount of talent. One thing I'll never forget, is how he could get you to play better than you knew you could. He would never criticize anyone. He'd always have a positive statement that would cause you to play something in a little different way that made all the difference in the world. He wouldn't tell someone that they're singing flat and have them lose their emotion while trying to think of the pitch. He'd say something like "Smile when you sing that line". I'd ask why did you ask them to do that, and he'd say, "When you smile, your throat opens up and your pitch automatically rises." He had a million of them. You wouldn't even know he was doing it to you. What a fantastic musician, producer, and person he was. He was one of a kind and he made his mark in music that will be around for many generations.