Abe Stoklasa, 36, respected Nashville musician and songwriter, has died

Abe Stoklasa, who died Nov. 17 at age 36 of undetermined causes, was an authentic and beloved Nashville musician and songwriter who desired to remain faithful to his moral and professional compass.

Stoklasa was born June 12, 1987, in Princeton, Missouri. Prodigal in his talent, he played the keyboard and sang in local bands by age 6, and by 14, ended up in Eagleville, Tennessee, an hour south of Nashville.

He was the co-valedictorian of Eagleville High School's graduating class of 2005.

A draft of his valedictorian speech ran afoul of Eagleville High School's administration and later raised the attention of the Tennessee chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The story made the pages of June 2005's Eagleville Times.

"You have given us the minimum required attention and education that is needed to master any station at any McDonald's anywhere. Of course, I am only kidding. Eagleville is a fine institute of higher learning, with a superb faculty and staff," a teenage Stoklasa wrote.

Eagleville's principal, Rhonda Holton, asked him to remove those statements. Believing his First Amendment rights were violated, he delivered his speech unabridged.

As a result, Eagleville shut down the sound system, and Stoklasa did not receive his diploma. Because of Tennessee's ACLU intervention, Eagleville High School later relented.

The moment set a precedent for Stoklasa's eventual career and the rest of his life.

As a teenage singer-songwriter, he was also moved by the works of artists including Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon and James Taylor, plus his musician father's tastes for classic country and Motown.

Enrolling at Belmont University, his tastes as an "old soul" of sorts expanded to him working with football star-turned-post-countrypolitan era songwriter Mike Reid (Ronnie Milsap's 1984 hit "Stranger in My House") and Mark D. Sanders (2000's "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack).

Post-collegiate pursuits found him attempting graduate school, studying jazz at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.

However, the road and the songwriting room soon beckoned him.

Having also picked up the saxophone and steel guitar, he toured with artists including David Nail and Billy Currington. His work with Currington found him, at 23, onstage during Kenny Chesney's 59-date "Goin' Coastal" stadium tour in 2011.

"I was playing football stadiums full of people on the Kenny Chesney tour, and after that tour, I was just like, I've kind of peaked as a musician; it's never gonna get any bigger than that," Stoklasa stated in a 2015 interview.

When digging deeper into his reason and purpose for his craft -- and why he switched from being a musician to a songwriter -- another name spawned by his love of classic rock and awareness of country's timeless sounds comes to the forefront:

Vince Gill.

"I owe a lot to [Vince Gill], because if he hadn't come along and changed the musical and sonic landscape of [Nashville], there would be no room for me. There's a place for my music in this town because of him, I think."

Regarding his other motivations, a 2016 Music Row Magazine interview offers his philosophy on his songwriting work.

"I can always tour if I need money," he stated. Then, after noting that his skills were not in the vein of fellow Music City songwriting stalwarts like Dallas Davidson (1/3 of the Peach Pickers with Rhett Akins and Ben Hayslip, with three dozen top-10 songs in 20 years) and Craig Wiseman (30 No. 1s in four decades in Nashville), he noted he "found [his] skill-set and how it can be new to the marketplace."

In 2015, he opined, "Melancholy, I love. Sad songs stick so much harder than happy songs. Happy songs are so much harder to write, though, I think. I can stab someone in the heart much easier than I can tickle 'em."

Within five years of work as solely a songwriter, Stoklasa had, by 2016, signed to publisher Big Yellow Dog Music and achieved a No. 1 single with Chris Lane's "Fix" plus well-regarded cuts with Tim McGraw (2014's "Portland, Maine") and a 2016 Grammy nomination for Charles Kelley's solo cut "The Driver," which features Dierks Bentley and Eric Paslay.

"We wrote 'Portland, Maine' on the day we met. I listened to his singing voice on his demos and I thought he'd be a 57-year-old man. But he was just a kid, younger than me. His voice was wonderful, wise, easy to hear and easy to love," co-writer Donovan Woods said in an Instagram post about Stoklasa's passing.

"He was so principled, kind and caring and wickedly hilarious and talented," offered performer Charlie Worsham in a Nov. 17 social media post in remembrance.

Worsham befriended Stoklasa in 2017 and cut two of his songs (the album's title track and "Call You Up") on his 2017 album "The Beginning of Things."

"I met [Abe] through [musician and song publisher] Derek Wells while pulling together a band to play Ernest Tubb's Midnite Jamboree in 2016. I didn't know anyone who could play steel guitar and saxophone really well and [knew the catalogs] of Vince Gill and Aretha Franklin with equal depth."

In closing, Worsham joked that the last song he wrote with Stoklasa saw them pairing with "Portland, Maine" co-writer Woods. Entitled "Dorothy and Rose," it was about the television program "The Golden Girls."

"It was the best song I'd written in six months," Worsham noted.

About Stoklasa, Wells, who later signed him to Spirit Music Nashville and his Spirit joint venture 2 Mix Music, added, in a statement to The Tennessean, "In a town like Nashville, where so many people are amazing, Abe was truly one of the most talented people I've ever met. He was truly brilliant. I've never seen anybody so steadfast in saying and standing by what they felt."

He's best remembered by Lady A's Kelley, who counted Stoklasa as a collaborator and friend.

"Abe was otherworldly," Kelley said. "I always knew his mind moved at a pace I could never comprehend. He was confidence and self-doubt all wrapped in one. But, he for sure was a musician's musician and carried one of the most authentic voices in this town. We shared a deep love of Marc Cohn's records. I'll never listen to 'Rest for the Weary' without thinking of you, my friend:

" 'One day, there's love for the lonely / One day, they walk in the sun / One day, rest for the weary, rest for the weary ones.' "

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Abe Stoklasa, 36, respected Nashville musician and songwriter, has died