Robert Rheubottom of Examiner.com reports: Jim Clench, former bassist for Canadian supergroups April Wine and Bachman Turner Overdrive, has died.

April Wine's official website -- http://www.aprilwine.ca --reports the veteran Canadian rocker, who replaced Jim Henman in Nova Scotia's April Wine from 1971-75 and later replaced Randy Bachman in Winnipeg's BTO from 1977-79, passed away Tuesday (11/02/10) at the age of 61.

Clench initially played on the first 4 hit April Wine albums, 1971's "April Wine," 1972's "On Record," 1973's "Electric Jewels" and 1975's "Stand Back" and also took over lead vocals from primary singer Myles Goodwyn on songs such as "Oowatanite" and "Weeping Widow" along with adding well crafted and memorable bass parts on songs such as "Drop Your Guns" before exiting the band in 1975.

In 1977, Clench took over bass and shared lead vocal duties with BTO's Fred Turner, who was moved from bass to rhythm guitar duties when Randy Bachman exited the group after the release of 1977's "Freeway" album. He recorded 2 albums with them, 1978's Street Action and 1979's Rock n' Roll Nights before the group disbanded.

In 1992, Goodwyn reformed April Wine and Clench returned to the fold , recording 4 more studio albums, "Attitude" (1993), "Frigate" (1994), "Back to the Mansion" (2001), and "Roughly Speaking" (2006), before departing the band for good in 2006.

Details of his Clench's death have not yet been released as of this writing.