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SINGER-SONGWRITER ROB MORSBERGER DIES

SINGER-SONGWRITER ROB MORSBERGER DIES

Photo: Tim Robinson

Brian Mansfield, Special for USA TODAY
2:18 p.m. EDT June 3, 2013



The singer-songwriter had been working on a documentary about his life and art.










Rob Morsberger, a singer-songwriter who had been working on a documentary about living with terminal brain cancer, died Sunday.

Morsberger, 53, had been diagnosed with grade 4 Glioblastoma in September 2011. As a sideman/arranger, he had worked with Patti Smith, My Morning Jacket, Crash Test Dummies, Marshall Crenshaw, Willie Nile, Jules Shear, Loudon Wainwright III and others.

The critically admired singer released seven albums, the final two coming last September. One of those was A Part of You, a cycle of songs for his sons; the other a collaboration with Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies called Midnight Garden.

"I have had a wonderful life, and feel so thankful that I have gotten to see this story end so happily, with so much joy, and the feeling that I have been able to honor the gifts that the universe bestowed on me," Morsberger wrote last fall. "One can ask for no greater blessing than that; unless it is the knowledge that one leaves behind three wonderful sons; all doomed, I fear, to be artists of one kind or another, already reaching far beyond the accomplishments of the father who loves them always."

Morsberger is survived by his sons Elan, Jesse and Ben, his sister Wendy, his father Philip and other family members.

In March, USA TODAY premiered two video performances that will be featured in the upcoming documentary about Morsberger's life.

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