About

This is a Journal about Hank Williams, his contemporaries, and musical descendants. The Author is a retired teacher and broadcaster who has studied the life and works of Hank Williams since the 1950s. He is more of a fan than an expert, so please join the discussion.

14 Comments »

14 Responses

on November 11, 2008 at 7:57 am Peter Turner

Hello John

Just had to write & say how wonderful your site is.

Hank was very well known and popular in Australia. In fact his recordings had enormous influence on Australian country music as had Jimmie Rodgers a couple of decades before.

I was only 7 years old when he died but because I was born a music nutter, I knew who he was & the songs that had been on the radio. I knew nothing about his personal life but as years wore on it was no surprise to me that so many of his songs were autobiographical. Nobody could sing so intensely about strangers.

Cheers & the best of good wishes.

Peter Turner
Mornington
Australia
on November 11, 2008 at 10:50 am ahankwilliamsjournal

Thanks Peter.

I guess a lot of people feel the new Unreleased Recording set adds a new dimension to understanding Hank.

Until this came along people may have had an overly gloomy view of Hank’s life and personality.

Of course we fans will learn more about this when we get to hear the actual programs in their entirety.

I’ve heard Reader’s Digest will release those at a later date.

John W
on January 10, 2009 at 5:26 am Peter Turner

Further to the above John,

I know where I can lay my hands on a bootleg of the entire Mother’s Best Shows. The quality is nowhere near what Time-Life have released & will release in the future, but it includes all the ads/talk/etc.

Let me know if you want a copy.

Cheers

Peter
on April 2, 2009 at 5:11 pm A. Michael Uhlmann

John I’m so sorry I haven’t translated that french article yet for all of you – but my music festival in March kept me really busy. One of these days… I promise.

But I found an interesting little tidbit about our hero – check it our.

http://www.nashvillegab.com/2009/04/bellhop-recalls-last-hours-of-hank-williams-srs-life.html

A. Michael Uhlmann
amu communications
amucomm@gmail.com

P.S. I ordered a Hank Williams mosaic today…
on April 22, 2009 at 12:41 pm A. Michael Uhlmann

John

this is another disturbing sign of the times… maybe a blog of yours may help…

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20090421/NEWS01/904210320

Michael
on September 12, 2009 at 6:40 pm Rebecca

FYI –

Hank Williams: Lost Highway now playing at Circuit Playhouse in Memphis, TN. A raw, REAL and respectful musical. Runs thru Oct. 11, 2009 every Thurs, Fri, Sat & Sun.

http://www.playhouseonthesquare.org/

(I was looking for Mother’s Best artwork for a gift to my husband – a huge Hank fan – and came across your site.)
on January 26, 2010 at 8:43 pm Court

Hello John,

Your posts on “Alone and Forsaken” made me realize that I have a lot of Hank, but I don’t have it all. I have the 40 Golden Hits and The Unreleased Unrecordings. Do you think it would be worth the chips ($90) to download the whole Hank Williams boxset off of Amazon? Are there enough other songs in there to make it worth it, especially since they are remastered? Or would it be worth it to just download the single songs I don’t have?

Appreciate your insight on this, and keep up the great work on the blog.

Stay well,
Court Merrigan
on January 31, 2010 at 6:41 pm Jim Paul Blair

Hi John,
Enjoying your website! I’ve read a lot of Hank, but in recently researching Hank for a recent production of “Lost Highway” that I portrayed Hank in, I spent some time visiting with my Mom, Ramona Reed, who was “Martha White” on the Grand Ole Opry when Hank made his debut in 1949. As Hank performed more on the opery, she and Audrey developed a friendship. As she was showing me old programs and sorting through her memorabilia, she pulled out a contemporary looking blue dress and said “this is the dress I was wearing when I made Audrey mad”. Seems as though she decided to perform a version of “Honky Tonkin'” on the Martha White portion of the opry and Audrey was upset about the performance, since she had recorded the same tune for Decca. After a stern reprimand from Opry management, she left to go to work for Bob Wills. I’ve got some pics from those days if you are ever interested.
on February 27, 2010 at 6:44 pm Constance Rutherford

Hi
Found your blog and read a lot of entries. Excellent work! It’s good to see the music we love so much being kept alive. Thank you for that.

You might be interested in this:
http://www.whydontyouloveme.ch

Best
Constance
on February 7, 2011 at 1:22 am priscilla kellebrew

when can i see it in little rock arkansas and were
on August 3, 2011 at 9:26 pm Stephen Mertz

I greatly enjoy your website. I am a publishewd novelist and my new novel, Hank & Muddy, is the account of a fictional meeting between two rough-and-tumble American music icons, Williams and Muddy Waters, on a steamy summer night in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1952, and the misadventures that ensue. The title characters alternate as narrators. It’s a tale about music, race, sex and the other things that unite and divide American society in 1952 and today, with a plot that involves the Ku Klux Klan, crooked cops, and the black underworld of Shreveport in that era, G-men and commies, a bank robber’s free-spirited daughter and a quest for Hank’s missing songbook.
I hope you like it. Here is an interview about the Book:

http://davycrockettsalmanack.blogspot.com/2011/08/hank-muddy-interview-with-author.html
on September 27, 2013 at 3:30 pm wally bredemeier

Just found this website and I enjoyed it very much. I met Hank Williams
in 1951 when he was traveling with the Hadacal Caravan. I was a boy of
12 and surrounded by country music in my family. What a joy to hear him,
then to get his autograph. He wrote “best wishes Hank Williams”. I knew
I was witnessing history as his sound and presents was a memory for life.
Still have that autograph.
Wally Bredemeier
Kansas
on February 25, 2014 at 3:26 pm Marvin Kaplansky

John,

Looks like there will be more Hank material released soon. See the article at the following site:

http://www.gratefulweb.com/articles/hank-williams-jaco-pastorius-headline-record-store-day

-or-

http://tinyurl.com/ksx8esa

The CD “The Garden Spots Programs, 1950” is to be released in May.

I recall shortly after Hank’s death, MGM said that they had a stockpile of unreleased material. Who would have expected that more than 60 years after his death there would still be new-to-us recordings coming out, even if they are only different versions of songs he already recorded. I am counting the days.

Marvin Kaplansky
on April 6, 2014 at 10:05 am K.

Hi, John–

Hope all is well. You might enjoy this:

K.