Hank Williams

Hank Williams

Specials

by John Morthland

Where to begin an article about Hank Williams! How about with the kind of gross overstatement that it�s impossible to disprove (or prove)? To wit:

Hank Williams is probably the most influential recording artist of all time. In his day, he cut across all race, age and class barriers; today, his influence is possibly even stronger. Don Covay and Little Richard, to name but two, have cited Hank Williams as a major influence. (Hank, in turn, had learned nearly everything he knew about guitar and singing from an old black street singer in his home town of Montgomery, Alabama.) Later, Bob Dylan was to call Hank one of his two biggest influences. Of all the records in my collection, Hank�s are about the only ones that my parents ana t can agree upon as oeing gooa music.

Hank died early on the morning of January 1, 1953, on his way to a gig in Canton, Ohio. He died in the back seat of his car; the coroner�s report said it was a heart attack. He was nine months short of his 30th birthday.