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Contributor Record

Craig Decker

Bass voice and guitar, The Modern Melodaires.

Craig Allred Decker sang bass and played guitar in The Modern Melodaires, a quartet of missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with Elders Michael Campbell, Craig Christensen and David Eastman. The quartet formed in Porto Alegre in October 1964 and toured southern Brazil, singing in English and Portuguese.

The LP names him as the voice of “16 Toneladas” (Sixteen Tons). His bass voice earned him the nickname “Bottomless Craig.”

Recordings

LP cover of The Modern Melodaires: a watercolour of four young men in red waistcoats playing guitar, double bass and mandolin, with the names of the four Elders.

The Modern Melodaires
LP, Gravação Especial PSP-LP-1.220
Pressed by Gravações Elétricas S.A., São Paulo
Cover illustration signed Hassis

  1. Banua
  2. Sapo
  3. Aqueles Olhos Verdes
  4. Good News
  5. Winkin Blinkin & Nod
  6. O Riachinho Dá
  7. Beija-me Muito
  8. Sixteen Tons
  9. Ensinando Bossa Nova
  10. Run-Around Sue

Ten of the LP's eleven tracks; “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” (side A, track 4) is not on the transfer. Published with the permission of Craig Decker's family.

Sources: the LP jacket, liner notes and labels; obituary of Craig Allred Decker (1943–2026), Sundberg-Olpin & Wheeler Mortuary.

AMOS Citation. Adaptor House. Craig Decker: Contributor Record. Contributor record with recordings. Adaptor House Entities, 25 September 2026. https://adaptorhouse.com/entities/contributors/craig-decker

Participants. Matthew L. Tyler (human; editor; mode: directed). Claude, Opus 5.5 (ai; provider: Anthropic; mode: drafted).

Provenance. 1 directed: Matthew L. Tyler supplied the recordings, jacket and label photographs, the family's permission and the obituary link. 2 drafted: Claude wrote the page from those sources.

Id. AMOS-V-0164.