Hank Williams 1923 - 1953

Home | Next

One of the most charismatic figures in country music - his Opry performance of June 11, 1949, when his audience required him to reprise 'Lovesick Blues' several times is still considered as the Ryman's greatest moment - He was born Hiram King Williams in Georgia. Alabama on 17th September, 1923. A member of the church choir at six, he was given a $3.50 guitar by his mother a year later receiving some tuition from Tee-tot (Rufe Payne) an elderly black street musician. When barely a teenager he won $15.00 singing WPA Blues at a Montgomery amateur contest, then formed a band 'The Drifting Cowboys' which played on station WSFA, Montgomery, for over a decade. In 1946 Williams signed with Sterling Records, switching to the newly formed MGM label in 1947. Though virtually an alcoholic, he was booked as a regular on KWKH's Louisiana Hayride, and in 1949, having scored with his recording of 'Lovesick Blues', came a contact with the Grand Ole Opry. An early recording, ' Move It On Over', had already been a minor hit for Williams but after the runaway success of Lovesick Blues (a song waxed by yodeler 'Emmett Miller' in 1925), he began cutting top 10 singles with almost monotonous regularity. With Fred Rose masterminding every Williams recording session, arranging, playing and often participating in the songwriting, such hits as - Wedding Belles, Mind Your Own Business, You're Gonna Change & My Buckets Got A Hole In It, all charted during 1949, the following year providing I Just Don't Like This Kind Of Living, Long Gone Lonesome Blues, Why Don't You Love Me? and Moaning The Blues. These were followed by - Cold, Cold Heart, Howlin' At The Moon, Hey Good Lookin', Crazy Love, Baby We're Really In Love, Honky Tonk Blues, Half As Much, Jambalaya, Settin' The Woods On Fire & I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, The latter ironically released just before his death (from a heart attack brought on by excessive drinking) on New Years Day, 1953. Home | Next Courtesy of Salamander Books LTD, London - New York