100 years of Hank Williams: Country-western music singer's impact ripples through time
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In the late 1940s, Hank Williams had an idea that was way ahead of its time — a social media experiment of sorts.
Apparently, someone had suggested to the 26-year-old rising country-western singer/songwriter that people weren’t listening to his kind of music anymore. A few critics of the day were also being a little harsh, describing Hank’s new releases as “drone folk blues with spry fiddlin’” and “nasal voiced chirp brays.”
One day during his regular show on WSFA radio, where he’d been doing live music shows since age 13, Hank decided to risk everything to test a theory.
“I told everybody on the radio that this was my last program,” Hank said to Allen Rankin, a columnist for the Alabama Journal and the Montgomery Advertiser, in 1948. “‘If everybody’s enjoyed it,’ I said, ‘I’d like to hear from ’em. I got 400 cards and letters that afternoon and the next mornin’… They decided they wanted to keep my kind of music.”
Seventy-five years after that experiment, as we approach the late Hank Williams’ 100th birthday on Sept. 17, his point is still being made. People in Montgomery and around the world are still celebrating the “Hillbilly Shakespeare” and listening to Hank's music — songs like “Hey, Good Lookin’,” “I Saw The Light,” “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart.”
That’s just scratching the surface of Hank’s works. Though he died at 29, Hank left behind a mountain of music.
“I think it’s extraordinary in the fact that he’s been dead for 70 years, and his music is alive and well today around the world,” said Hank’s daughter, Jett Williams. “My dad has three record deals that are active today with Universal Music Group, BMG, and Omnivore Recordings. If that’s not good enough, he has an active publishing deal with Sony.”
From the Hank Williams Museum on Commerce Street in Montgomery, organizers have been preparing for September's activities for about 9 months.
“The programs that we have put together are pretty awesome,” said museum director Beth J. Petty. Three days of concerts downtown at the Davis Theatre include:
Sept. 15, 6:30 p.m. — Rhonda Vincent, David Ball, David Church
Sept. 16, 2 p.m. — Leona and Ron Williams, the Perley Curtis Band, The Jukebox Allstars
Sept. 17, 2 p.m. — Gene Watson, Jason Petty, Zachariah Malachi & The Nashville Counts
Tickets for each show can be purchased separately at eventbrite.com.
“We’re expecting large crowds, and expecting the Davis Theatre to fill up for the shows,” Petty said.
Ahead of the Sept. 17 concert, people will gather starting at 8:45 a.m. at Hank's gravesite in Montgomery's Oakwood Cemetery, 1304 Upper Wetumpka Road. After a 15-minute music performance, they'll lay a wreath at his grave. Petty said there's also a resolution from the Senate proclaiming that day as Hank Williams Day.
Jett, a longtime singer who said she’s semi-retired, isn’t going to be at Montgomery's celebrations, but they have her blessing.
“Montgomery’s got it all together, and I think it’s wonderful that they’ve put together this three-day event,” Jett said. “I know most of the entertainers that are going to be on the program, and they’ve all got the love for the Hank music.”
Hank still inspiring today’s artists
“I love Hank Williams. Who doesn’t, right?” said longtime country singer Martina McBride, known far and wide for the 1993 hit “Independence Day.” On Sept. 23, less than a week after Montgomery's Hank celebration concerts, she’ll be nearby at Wind Creek Wetumpka for her own sold-out show.
“I’ve covered his songs quite a bit,” McBride told the Advertiser. “I used to sing ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’ in my show all the time.”
Singer/songwriter Darrell Scott of London, Ky., grew up on Hank Williams' music — thanks to a dad who was truly devoted Hank fan.
“My dad loved Hank Williams. Just a fanatic of Hank. This was in the late ‘40s, early ‘50s. My dad, who grew up in Kentucky, he just latched on to Hank because his singing, the writing, his band. Everything about Hank Williams, my dad was all about it,” said Scott, who will perform a “100 Years of Hank” show on Sept. 17 at the Montgomery Performing Arts Centre.
His dad's love of Hank went a little beyond simple fandom.
“He tried to sing like him. He tried to write like him,” Scott said. “All those records were absolutely the backdrop of my childhood, the entire catalog of Hank Williams.”
Apparently, Scott’s dad succeeded to a point. On Scott’s latest album “Old Cane Back Rocker,” there’s a song called “This Weary Way.”
“When I was a kid, I thought Hank wrote that song,” Scott said. It wasn’t until Scott was 20 that he learned the truth.
“I was like, oh my God, that’s my dad’s song,” Scott said.
Tickets for Scott’s 7 p.m. show range from $17.50 to $37, and are available for purchase at https://www.mpaconline.org/events/ or by calling the MPAC box office at 334-481-5100.
Scott said he’ll be discussing the music as he goes through the performance.
“I’m just trying to bring a program that will illuminate the importance of Hank Williams, 100 years after his birth,” Scott said.
'First to last:' Hank and the Davis Theatre
While the Hank Williams Museum will be open during the three-day celebration, and treating guests to in-museum music performances in front of Hank’s blue Cadillac, there’s a reason the main performances are taking place at the Davis Theatre — and it’s not just because the Davis will hold more people.
Petty said that when it comes to Hank, that area is known as the “first to last.”
“We chose the Davis Theatre because of the history with Hank Williams on Montgomery Street,” Petty said. “Hank Williams started out performing on Montgomery Street at the Empire Theatre, which is now the location of the Rosa Parks Library at Troy University. He won a talent show in December of 1937. He won $15 first place prize at that talent show.”
On December 28, 1952, Hank Williams performed at the Elite Café, which was a block from the Davis.
“He was at a musicians union meeting on a Sunday night,” Petty said. “They asked him to get up and perform a few songs. It was not a scheduled performance or concert… That was the last time he performed in public. Four days later, he passed away.”
One extra Hank link is to the Davis Theatre itself, which used to be the Paramount: In 1964, the theater premiered the movie “Your Cheatin’ Heart” starring George Hamilton as Hank Williams.
“All of the Grand Ole Opry stars came for that performance,” Petty said.
Hank art and music celebration in Mobile
The Hank Williams Museum is also providing art to fill a 5,000 square feet exhibit space at the University of South Alabama Marx Library in Mobile.
“We have art that people have donated to us over this past year to participate in this art show,” Petty said.
Bobby Tomberlin will perform at the library during a reception for the exhibit at 5 p.m. on Sept. 7. Tickets for this performance are $20, and can be purchased at eventbrite.com.
The exhibit will be on display through October.
Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel covers things to do in the River Region. Contact him at sheupel@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: 100 years of Hank Williams: Singer's impact ripples through time
