Jay "Jaybo" Butler, a longtime on-air fixture on Triangle radio, died Sunday night at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill. He was 58 years old and was diagnosed with prostate cancer five weeks earlier. But Butler died "with a smile on his face," said his widow, Aletha Chrietzberg.

Butler was a deejay at a number of local stations over the past three decades including WKIX, G-105 and WRAL. He also did commercials and voice work for broadcasts of NC State Wolfpack football games.

But Butler's highest-profile stint was with country station WQDR, where he spent nearly two decades doing everything from program director to morning-show co-host.

"We did the morning show together through the '90s and we had a blast," said Mike Wheless, Butler's on-air partner at WQDR. "I used to call him 'Old Fezziwig,' after the fat guy Scrooge used to work for before he became mean. Jay was a big man -- 6-foot-7 and 300 pounds -- and he looked and acted tough. But he had the biggest heart, and one of the best voices in the area."

Butler is survived by his widow and two children, 14-year-old Laura Caitlyn and 12-year-old Christian Cody. Visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday with funeral services set for 1 p.m. Friday, both at Fuquay Varina Baptist Church.

Lots of concert news to report. First up, WQDR's "Country Megaticket" goes on sale Feb. 19, with prices ranging from $179 to $579. And here's what you get for that, the seven big country shows at Raleigh's Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek:

May 28 -- "Country Throwndown 2010" with a bunch of acts, most notably Oscar nominee Ryan Bingham (plus Montgomery Gentry, Jamey Johnson, Little Big Town, Jack Ingram, Eric Church, Eli Young Band, Lost Trailers, Heidi Newfield, Jonathan Singleton and Emily West).

June 5 -- Brooks & Dunn, Jason Aldean

July 10 -- Toby Keith

July 24 -- Tim McGraw, Love and Theft

Aug. 28 -- Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker

Oct. 2 -- Sugarland

TBA -- Rascal Flatts, Kellie Pickler

Also, three cool rock shows coming our way have been announced: Arctic Monkeys at Raleigh's Disco Rodeo on April 6; Mastodon at Raleigh's Lincoln Theatre on April 17; and singer/songwriter Josh Ritter at Durham's Carolina Theatre on May 11.

Holy cow, Bob "Bobzilla" Davis has won a pretty big-deal award. Click through for details, and some accompanying back-story verbiage.

Saturday brings the sixth installment of the Krispy Kreme Challenge, with all the attendant gross consumption that is, well, gross beyond your wildest imaginings. And if you're curious as to how many calories the race's participants will be ingesting, well, that's why I'm here. Go here for more fun facts and figures about the whole undertaking. Demand to get into this year's race is such that people have even been scalping their bibs!

ADDENDUM (2/7/10): And here's how it went.

Ask Steve Winwood how he goes about preserving his trademark voice against the ravages of time, and he has a somewhat unexpected answer.

"Strange to say, one thing I always insist on not doing is interviews while on tour," he said, laughing, in a recent phone chat. "It does take a lot out of your voice, so I like to get all those done well before the tour starts, to give the voice a rest. In the bad old days before monitors and that kind of thing, it was a lot easier to strain your voice."

Fortunately, we got our interview in before Winwood's U.S. tour starts Tuesday night in Durham. For details on that and more, see the story in Friday's paper.

There's a lot to like about "Crazy Heart," starting with Jeff Bridges' Oscar-bait performance as a down-on-his-luck country singer (and continuing with some choice contributions from one Ryan Bingham). Ultimately, however, "Crazy Heart" just isn't quite as good as it feels like it should be -- though it's still well worth seeing, don't get me wrong. For lots more from the mixed-feelings department, see the review in Friday's paper.

ADDENDUM: Controversy over the soundtrack.

Durham Performing Arts Center continues its hot booking streak with the announcement of yet another notable singer/pianist, one-time toast-of-the-Grammys Norah Jones, who will play there on Aug. 8. Tickets go on sale on Feb. 12 -- wow, almost six months ahead of time. That's quite an advance set-up.

There was lots of hoopla over the garish performances and big winners at Sunday night's Grammy Awards, which overshadowed a fantastic little human-interest story. And that involved kora master Mamadou Diabate -- a Durham resident who very nearly didn't make it to Los Angeles and needed a big favor to get there in time to hear his name read at the ceremonies. Read about it here.

Diabate, by the way, was in the 2006 edition of our annual local-music spotlight, Eight Great Local Acts. The 2010 model will be unveiled on Feb. 26. You may start sharpening your knives. 

Despite the weather, Saturday night's 25-year-anniversary PineCone show with Kris Kristofferson went on as scheduled because Kristofferson and the other artists on the bill made it into town. But the Sunday afternoon program with headliner Ricky Skaggs has been postponed and will be
rescheduled. Details about the new date should be available next week, along with a "special offer" for those who purchased advance tickets for the Kristofferson show but couldn't get there.

Click through for the live-blog blow-by-blow report on Sunday night's Grammy Award ceremonies -- which featured one Triangle resident reaching the winner's circle.