US based artist manager and Lost Highway co-founder Frank Callari died last week at the age of 55. Among the artists he worked with during his career were the Mavericks, Ryan Adams, Junior Brown and Lucinda Williams.
Callari got into the music business in the mid-seventies after taking a second degree at New York University in music technology. Through his course and his involvement in college radio station WNYU he began to DJ and remix, before moving into management in the late eighties after meeting The Mavericks in Miami.
He later moved to Nashville where he met Luke Lewis of Universal's Mercury Nashville division. The two of them created Lost Highway Records in 2001, with Callari initially working as the imprint's chief A&R man. Some of the other artists managed by Callari, including Adams and Williams, subsequently signed to the label.
A funeral is planned in Nashville for tomorrow.