The world gets a little quieter each time a musician and artist such as Chris Ethridge passes.

    Friday afternoon, at the Brickhouse Bar and Grill on Front Street in Meridian, family and friends gathered to remember the man, his music, his style and grace with a bass guitar, and his love for his family. It was a chance for Al Brown, radio personality for WMOX and the Al’s Every Day talk show, to put the stories out there that Chris Ethridge was hesitant to talk about.

    “It wasn’t that he was uncomfortable talking about himself it was just he was so humble and he never boasted,” said David Zettler, a longtime friend and fellow musician who played in a number of bands with Ethridge. “You had to pull things out of him. To him, his life was ordinary. To us, the fans, it was extraordinary because of the people he knew and the things he did.”

    Ethridge was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September. He passed away Monday at Anderson Regional Medical Center.

    A member of the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame, Ethridge, 65, was well known as a musician and songwriter, and a founding member of the groundbreaking country-rock band The Flying Burrito Brothers. He later toured with Willie Nelson & Family, and played the character Easter in the 1980 Willie Nelson film “Honeysuckle Rose.”

    “He had the best sense of melody,” Zettler said. “It is hard for anyone to copy his style and technique because it was so natural to him. People like him are not born every day.”

    Ethridge co-wrote several songs with Gram Parsons during their collaborations in the late ’60s and early ’70s with the International Submarine Band, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and afterward.

    As a studio session musician Ethridge’s career included work with Judy Collins, Johnny Winter, Ry Cooder, Leon Russell, Randy Newman, Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds, and Jackson Browne.

    Ethridge often played locally, and was supportive of the regional music scene.

    Ethridge’s thoughtfulness, and encouragement was extended to others early in his career. By the time he was 17 he was working in California.

    Ethridge is credited as one of the first Southern musicians to make it to the West Coast. He showed other Southern musicians the ropes when they got out to California such as the late Jim Dickinson, Duane Allman, and many more.

    The music Ethridge helped to create is a national treasure as well, and will continue to be. The Flying Burrito Brothers’ first album, “The Gilded Palace of Sin,” released in 1969, is listed in Rolling Stone Magazine’s recently published issue featuring “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” The magazine ranked it No. 192, calling it “one of the most obscure masterpieces of Sixties rock.”

    To Joey Ethridge, the loss of his brother was especially hard since his losing his best friend last year.

    “Chris stepped in and became my best friend after I lost my good friend last year,” said Joey Ethridge. “He’d call me every day to see what I was up to. I miss him a great deal.”

    Joey Ethridge said Chris’ style on the bass was something that was totally unique to him.

    “People could play the same notes, at the same volume, but it wouldn’t come out like Chris could do,” Joey Ethridge said. “But I think Chris would love to know how many people he touched with his music throughout his life.”