The Hank Williams Centennial

Today marks the centennial birthday of one of America’s greatest songwriters and performers, Hiram “Hank” Williams (1923-1953). Unlike his country precursor Jimmie Rodgers, Williams came along too late for vaudeville; he was a creature of honky tonks, radio, the recording studio and the Grand Ole Opry (until they threw him out for drinking and drugs). But is there vaudeville IN his music? I’d say so.

I grew up in a country music loving household during the Country Renaissance of the 1970s. I turned away from it somewhat as a teenager but when I was in my mid-twenties, my ex (who shares a birthday with Williams) turned me on to him in a big way. And because he is so central to the history of the music, he’s like a gateway drug to the rest of it, the classic kind, anyway. One thing I don’t think is widely known is how YOUNG he was when he hit it big (24) and how young he was when he died (29), making him, honestly, the same sort of phenomenon as Elvis or the Beatles, and only a shade older than the 27 Club (with a very similar sort of death). Only a compartmentalization into a music genre ghetto alienates him from that usual narrative, but he also impacted the wider pop music world. He really should be included in that same category.

I’ve come to know his songs so well that I can’t tell how unusual I am as regards the general recognition of these songs, all of which I think of as classics: “Move it On Over” (1947), “Honky Tonkin'” (1948), “Lovesick Blues”, “Wedding Bells”, “I’m So Lonesome, I Could Cry” (1949), “Long Gone Lonesome Blues”, “Why Don’t You Love Me?” (1950), “Cold, Cold Heart”, “Hey Good Lookin'” (1951), “Half as Much”, “Jamabala (On the Bayou), (1952), “Kaw-Liga”, and of course “Your Cheatin’ Heart (1953). This is only about half of the hits, many of which were covered by other artists as well. “Cold, Cold Heart” was a crossover hit for Tony Bennett. David Lynch named a 1997 movie after “Lost Highway”. The title of the 2009 film Crazy Heart (based on a 1987 novel) also comes from a Williams song.

Born and raised in Southern Alabama, Williams was taught to play guitar by a black street performer named “Tee Tote” (Rufus Payne) in Greenville. The influence of the blues is central to Williams’ song writing, both the chord progressions and much of the subject matter. The more obvious influence was Nashville star “King of Country Music” Roy Acuff, and of course singers like Jimmie Rodgers and others, who worked that hound dog yodeling into their vocals. His wife Audrey Sheppard (mother of Hank Williams Jr) was also a major influence and muse, and she was the one who helped him get his career (which had begun in the late ’30s) back on track in the mid ’40s and helped see him through to success at venues like the Grand Ole Opry and Louisiana Hayride. 

Williams’ drinking and drug problem arose from self-medicating. He suffered from back pain, due to a congenital condition exacerbated by several injuries and a failed operation. He expired in the back seat of a car en route to an engagement on New Year’s Eve 1953, not yet 30 years old.  One can’t help but wonder how he would reacted to the musical changes of the coming decades had he lived out his natural life span. He’d only have been 60 in 1983! Would rock and roll have impacted him at all? Would he have retrenched into a stubborn country purism? We’ll never know.

In 1964 no less than GEORGE HAMILTON played Williams in the bio-pic Your Cheatin’ Heart, featuring Red Buttons and Arthur O’Connell.

To find out more about vaudeville past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous. And please keep an eye peeled for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.