Dave Fisher, Lead Singer Of Country-Folk Group Highwaymen, Passes

Dave Fisher, the lead singer of the Highwaymen, the popular 1960s folk group whose hit song "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" soared to the top of the music charts, has died. He was 69.

Fisher died Friday at his home in Rye, N.Y., of a bone marrow disease, his wife, Dr. Elaine K. Haagen, said Thursday.

Fisher was a freshman at Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1958 when he and four other fellow students formed the band. United Artists released Fisher's arrangement of the spiritual "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" while they were still in school. It soared to the top of the best-seller chart under the title "Michael," earning the group a gold record.

Other hits followed, including "Cotton Fields" and "The Gypsy Rover," as did appearances on Ed Sullivan's and Johnny Carson's shows.

The group began to frequently play the Gaslight Cafe in New York's Greenwich Village section and came into contact with such greats as Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton and Buffy Sainte Marie.

They disbanded in 1964 but came together again in 1987 for a concert for their 25th college reunion. Since then, they have performed 10-12 concerts a year, said Ken Greengrass, the group's longtime manager. The band last performed together in August in Massachusetts.

Fisher "was writing 99 percent of the music and doing the vocal arrangements" for the band, Greengrass said, in addition to being its lead singer. Fisher was only member of the band to make music his profession, working as a songwriter, arranger and producer for movies and television shows such as the "Fall Guy."

"The sound of the Highwaymen was Fisher," said Greengrass, who has managed Art Garfunkel and other artists. "His tenor made the group very recognizable."

Before Fisher died, the group had been discussing a number of projects, including a PBS special and a Woodstock-like show with other performing artists.

Band member Steve Butts, a retired university administrator who was the group's banjo player, said he and the other two surviving members were at Fisher's bedside the day before he died.