Jud Strunk

He died in a plane crash at the age of forty-five while testing one of the planes he had been working on. In 2004 Ali Farka Toure became mayor of Niafunke. After leaving show business, Strunk operated a small aviation business that restored antique aircraft. Toure is noted as the mentor to popular Malian musician Afel Bocoum. Jud Strunk became a folk hero of sorts in Maine and in 1970, he narrowly lost the election for a Senate seat in the State legislature. He reappeared in 1999 with Niafunke, a more traditional album focusing on African rhythms and beats. He had three more humorous songs that made it into the country music charts and toured with the Andy Williams Road Show. Toure usually sings in one of several African languages, as on his breakthrough album, Ali Farka Toure, which established his reputation in the world music community. 1994's Talking Timbuktu, a collaboration with Ry Cooder, sold promisingly well in western markets, but was followed by a hiatus from releases in America and Europe.

In 1973, he wrote and recorded the song "Daisy A Day" that made it into Billboard magazine's Top Twenty on both the country and pop music charts. As the first African bluesman to achieve widespread popularity on his home continent, Toure is often known as "the African John Lee Hooker". After he learned to play the banjo, Strunk began entertaining locals and went on to wide recognition after appearances on national television network shows such as Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Ali Farka Toure (born 1939 in Niafunke, Mali) is an African blues singer and guitarist, known throughout the continent as one its most famous performers. in Jamestown, New York, he was raised in Farmington, Maine where as a small boy his showmanship became evident. Born Justin Strunk, Jr.

Jud Strunk (June 11, 1936 - October 5, 1981) was an American singer, songwriter, and comedian.