Hank Festival concert will be broadcast on Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree

The Hank Williams Festival in Georgiana Alabama wrapped up   with a Saturday night ‘mini Opry’ concert hosted by Jett Williams. The concert will be broadcast in June on WSM radio’s Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree. Attendance and ticket sales were strong for  both  Friday and Saturday  events at the park next to the Hank Williams Boyhood Home and Museum.

The Saturday concert featured Jim Ed Brown, Helen Cornelius, David Frizzell, Jimmy Fortune, and Razzy Bailey as well as  Jett Williams. The Jamboree website lists June 4 as the date of the broadcast but there are few details. WSM broadcasts on the internet so the world wide family of readers of this blog will be able to tune in.

Here are some links:

The Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree schedule. Looks like June 4 will be the date.

Here’s the WSM homepage where you can find a link to listen to the broadcasst.

Here’s the article in the Greenville Advocate.

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Traditional Country Fan Club Newsletter always informative

A new edition of the International Traditional Country Music Fan Club  newsletter has been published. As usual there are lots of interesting items in the newsletter produced by Beecher O’Quinn Jr of Watauga TN.

O’Quinn has assembled a series of articles on performers from the 30’s and 40’s, plus a review of some of the great songs of the World War II period.

Featured in this edition is Ted Daffan an artist I was not familiar with. Born in Louisiana Daffan spent most of his career in Texas.He had a varied career as performer, recording artist, songwriter, and music publisher.

The list of legendary songs he wrote is amazing and his name should certainly be better known to run of the mill country fans like myself.  Here are some of them: ‘Born to Lose’, ‘Worried Man’, ‘No Letter Today’, ‘I’m A Fool To Care’, ‘I’ve Got Five Dollars’, ‘These Hands’, and a huge classic ‘I Really Don’t Want to Know’. As the writer of the article John Bell says Daffan was a country music superstar. Thanks to Beecher O’Quinn for keeping these names and histories alive.

Also featured in the recent issue are Nita Lynn, Bill Clifton, and Jean Chapel.

You can join the fan club and get the newsletter by writing:

Beecher O’Quinn

101 Cripple Creek Road

Watauga, TN 37694

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‘The Last Ride’ film on Hank Williams tours festival circuit

‘The Last Ride’ a film about the death of Hank Williams starring Henry Thomas  is being shown at film festivals. The movie is directed by Harry Thomason an Arkansas native and was filmed in that state. It will be shown at the Little Rock Film Festival in early June. ‘The Last Ride’ has been shown at the Nashville Film Festival and at the USA Film Festival in Dallas.

Reports from viewers seem to indicate the film has been well received, however there really haven’t been any formal newspaper, magazine or TV reviews at this point. So the showings at the festivals are being treated as previews.

The film was screened at Nashville on April 14 to 20. New films with Kris Kristofferson, Chely Wright, and Levon Helm also highlighted the Nashville festival.

‘The Last Ride’ was one of a number of big name movies shown at the Dallas festival from April 27 to May 1.

There is a Facebook page with comments on ‘The Last Ride’ It is HERE.

At the Little Rock Film Festival June 1 to 5, ‘The Last Ride’ will be honored as the opening night film for the festival.

Director Harry Thomason was interviewed on the festival’s blog. He says he had to get permission from Charles Carr, Hank’s driver on the last ride from Montgomery destined for Canton Ohio, in order to make the film. He says the Williams’ family was reluctant to support the movie at first, but Jett Williams has now seen it and has offered her support.  And she attended the world premier at the Nashville festival.

A posting on Facebook indicates the film will be released on DVD in September.

Finally here is the Harry Thomason interview from the Little Rock Film Festival Blog.

And here is a list of all my posts on the subject of ‘The Last Ride’.

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