biography
| name: |
Williams, Hank
|
| |
popular name of Hiram King Williams
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1923–53)
|
| biography:
| Composer and lyricist, born in Mount Olive West, Alabama, USA. As a young boy he joined the local church choir, taught himself guitar and, legend claims, learned music from a local African-American street singer. In 1937 he won an amateur music contest and soon began singing on radio. He formed Hank Williams and His Drifting Cowboys (1939) and began performing at honky-tonks and square dances. During World War 2 he worked in shipbuilding, and reunited the Drifting Cowboys in 1944. He moved to Nashville, TN (1946) and became a regular performer on Louisiana Hayride, a country music radio show (1947). In 1949 he began recording for MGM Records and caused a sensation at the ‘Grand Ole Opry’ when he sang ‘Lovesick Blues’ (1922, by Irving Mills and Cliff Friend), his recording of which reached No 1 on the country music charts. Many hits followed, including ‘Hey, Good Lookin'’ (1951) and ‘Your Cheatin' Heart’ (1953). Called the ‘hillbilly Shakespeare’, he wrote simple melodies mixing gospel, blues, and country, and his words and singing evoked a powerful sense of emotion. As much as anyone, he was responsible for popularizing country music within a broader public. Unsettled by a chronic back condition and a broken marriage, in 1953 he died of a heart attack attributed to drugs, alcohol, and insomnia, leaving a legacy of over 100 classic country songs. His son, Hank Williams Jr, became a popular country singer in the 1960s. |
|
|
