The words and music of Hank Williams echo across the decades
with a timelessness that transcends genre. He brought country
music into the modern era, and his influence spilled over
into the folk and rock arenas as well. Artists ranging from
Gram Parsons and John Fogerty (who recorded an entire album
of Williams’ songs after leaving Creedence Clearwater
Revival) to the Georgia Satellites and Uncle Tupelo have
adapted elements of Williams’ persona, especially
the aura of emotional forthrightness and bruised idealism
communicated in his songs. Some of Williams’ more
upbeat country and blues-flavored numbers, on the other
hand, anticipated the playful abandon of rockabilly.
He was born Hiram Williams, in Mount Olive, Alabama, in
1923. Williams learned gospel music from his Baptist-church
organist mother and blues and pop from a black street musician.
By age 16, he’d formed the first version of his legendary
Drifting Cowboys and was playing on a local radio station.
The early Forties found him performing one-nighters at roadhouses
across Alabama. He moved to Nashville in 1946, where he
signed with the famed Acuff-Rose publishing company and
landed a recording contract with MGM the following year.
His initial MGM release, “Move It On Over,”
was a rocking country blues made popular all over again
in the Seventies by George Thorogood. In 1949, his “Lovesick
Blues” topped the C&W chart and then remained
in the Top 15 for ten months. His debut on the Grand Ol’
Opry that same year earned him six encores, and he became
a regular cast member. “Lovesick Blues” was
the first of 11 million-selling singles for Williams over
the next four years. All totaled, Williams cracked the C&W
Top Ten 36 times.
Williams was a prolific tunesmith, powerful singer and magnetic
performer. His best-known songs - “Your Cheatin’
Heart,” “Hey, Good Lookin’,” “Cold,
Cold Heart,” “I’m So Lonesome I Could
Cry” - endure as American classics, speaking in eloquent
vernacular to fans of country, blues, pop and rock and roll
alike. Williams also recorded some gospel-style material
pseudonymously as “Luke the Drifter.” At the
height of his career, he virtually reinvented the country
idiom, paving the way for a new breed of songwriter. The
“outlaw” school of country singer-songwriters
who followed in Williams’ wake - including Willie
Nelson, Johnny Cash and his own son, Hank Williams Jr. -
would have been inconceivable without Williams’ rough-cut
artistry. However, problems with drugs and alcohol led to
Williams’ premature death by heart attack at age 29
while en route to a show. In 1961, Williams was the first
artist elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, a tribute
indicative of his impact.
