Prince and sports: Music in blood, basketball in his heart

Deadly airstrikes hit northern Syria as talks stall

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A musician whose instrumental recordings influenced guitar players including Stevie Ray Vaughan has died in Nashville, Tennessee. Lonnie Mack was 74. Alligator Record Label said in a statement that Mack died on Thursday of natural causes. He lived in Smithville, Tennessee, about 65 miles east of Nashville. Born Lonnie McIntosh in West Harrison, Indiana, Mack played sessions for record labels in Cincinnati with blues and R&B greats such as James Brown, Hank Ballard and Freddie King. His 1963 recording of Chuck Berry's "Memphis," became a radio hit, and he followed that with "Wham!", which inspired the nickname "whammy bar" for the tremolo bar he had on his Gibson Flying V.

Guitarist, singer Lonnie Mack dies at age 74 in Tennessee