Brian "Nashville" Duckworth, the country singer who performed with his family band Taylor Made, died at his home on Sept. 7 at age 56. His family shared the obituary, which identified him as a voice that stayed close to home even as he chased a music career.
For readers searching his name now, the reason is simple: Duckworth’s death closes the book on a life that moved between two worlds. He was the singer behind Taylor Made and, at the same time, a devoted dump truck driver for Wolfe’s Excavating, a job that earned him the nickname "Truck Boss" and fit the life his family described as one grounded in work and song.
He had been singing long before Taylor Made carried that name. Duckworth grew up performing with his brother Greg and his sister Wendy Williams, and the three formed I-79 in 2008. The group’s first performance came at the Colgate Country Showdown, and later the band became Taylor Made, the family act that carried his voice into fairs, festivals and recording sessions. One of its songs, "Things You Don’t Grow Out Of," reached No. 36 on the Billboard Indicator chart, a reminder that his reach extended beyond the family circle.
The part of his life that feels hardest to reconcile is also the part that made him memorable to the people around him. Duckworth worked the steady, physical job of driving a dump truck while still pushing toward country music, and his obituary said he never passed up a chance to sing. His niece, Brianna Duckworth Kazner, said she grew up watching her dad, Aunt Wendy and Uncle Brian perform at fairs and festivals, and that she is having a hard time believing the wedding video was the last time Taylor Made sang together.
Duckworth was survived by his wife, Tina, six children, four grandchildren, and five brothers and sisters. Brianna said he had a gift for lyrics that helped her when she got creatively stuck, a small but telling measure of the loss now felt by the family that carried his music for years. No cause of death was given, and that is the one detail left hanging as the rest of his story settles into memory.
