Halifax’s Brian Ahern, who produced albums by Anne Murray and Johnny Cash, dead at 81

A Halifax-born music producer who played a big role in helping encourage fellow Bluenoser Anne Murray to pursue a career in music and later produced albums by artists such as Johnny Cash and Emmylou Harris is being remembered for the mark he left on the music industry.

'We kind of cut our teeth and grew up in the music business together,' says Anne Murray

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A Halifax-born music producer who played a big role in helping encourage fellow Bluenoser Anne Murray to pursue a career in music and later produced albums by artists such as Johnny Cash and Emmylou Harris is being remembered for the mark he left on the music industry.

Brian Ahern, 81, died Monday at a care home in Minnesota.

Murray said she met Ahern when she auditioned for Singalong Jubilee, a CBC television program featuring local artists in Halifax that ran in the 1960s and 1970s. Ahern was the musical producer on the show. Murray said she did not make the cut the first time she auditioned.

"He wanted me to be on that show," Murray told CBC Wednesday. "And that's where it all started with Brian."

She was invited to audition again two years later and succeeded.

Anne Murray of Springhill, N.S., is shown in a 1971 photo. (The Canadian Press)

Ahern later moved to Toronto, while Murray remained on the East Coast working as a teacher. She did not feel ready to become a full-time musician, but Ahern kept pushing her.

"He was at me, writing letters, begging me to come to Toronto to do an album. Well, I couldn't see the point in that at all," said Murray with a laugh. "Finally, I gave in and I gave up teaching and went to Toronto and we did an album together."

She said he was very quiet and called him a brilliant musician.

"And sometimes you have to read his mind ... but he taught me a lot in the studio," said Murray. "I learned a lot from him as he was learning too, but he was so smart that he got to the point pretty quickly."

They faced many challenges together. When Murray arrived in Toronto, she said Ahern had "no money" and that she had to get his guitar using what she had made from teaching before they could record in a studio.

Brian Ahern accepts a lifetime achievement award for producer/engineer during The Americana Music Awards in Nashville on Sept. 9, 2010. (The Associated Press)

"We kind of cut our teeth and grew up in the music business together," said Murray.

Her breakout song, Snowbird, from 1969's This Way Is My Way, was one of 13 albums he produced by Murray, according to the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.

Murray said the two "went [their] separate ways, but [they] both went on to greater things."

From left: Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris and Brian Ahern perform on Nov. 18, 2013, in Nashville. (Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

Ahern's work also took him to places such as Los Angeles, and Nashville. He also produced albums by George Jones, Ricky Skaggs and Rodney Crowell. He also produced 11 of Emmylou Harris's albums; the pair married in 1974. 

The last time Murray saw Ahern in person was when he was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006.

"Brian's confidence in my ability was enough to carry me through those early years," Murray said before introducing Ahern on stage.

In 2010, he was awarded a lifetime achievement awards by the Americana Music Association and became a member of the Order of Canada in 2019.

In a statement following his death, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum said Ahern's work "helped create an essential form of American roots music" and it "provided a blueprint for Americana music in the 1990s."

Ahern was a 'steward of the artistic process'

Ahern's daughters, Shannon and Meghann Ahern, said they have fond memories of sleeping in recording studios as kids while their father worked.

"He would just take us everywhere, and he would build me like a human-sized dollhouse out of the studio baffles (soundproofing equipment), so I would have a way to play and keep myself quiet while he was working," said Shannon Ahern.

They described him as a "steward of the artistic process" who took his job seriously to ensure artists reached their full creative potential.

"They were people who I understood as being talented musicians, and that my dad was making art with them," said Meghann Ahern. "That was my context, that art was important, but it also required a work ethic and commitment and dedication."

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Giuliana is an award-winning journalist in Nova Scotia interested in fisheries, rural communities, the environment, and more. Got a story idea? Email it at giuliana.grillo.de.lambarri@cbc.ca.