Hank Williams

Hank Williams

Hank Williams was born Hiram but decided to unofficially change his name to Hank because he thought it was better fitted for is dream career of being a country musician. He was living in Georgiana, Alabama when he met Rufus “Tee-Tot” Payne, and African American street performer. Payne gave Williams many guitar lessons for meals made by Williams’ mother. Payne’s style was blues, but this did not change Williams’ wanting to be a country star. Eventually the Williams family moved to Montgomery and Hank lost contact with Payne. Later on Williams gave sole credit to Payne for being his teacher.

 The same year that his family moved to Montgomery, Hank Williams participated in a talent shoe which he won singing “WPA Blues”, his first original song. From then on he would play and sing in front of radio studios whenever he was not in school.  This caught WSFA producer’s attention. They asked him on occasion to sing on air and many listeners would call in wanting to her more from Williams, this lead the radio company to hire him on full time. The money he earned from the show to start his own band he called the Drifting Cowboys. The band traveled around southern Alabama until Williams dropped out of school. This allowed them to travel as far as Florida panhandle and western Georgia. During their breaks he would return home and host his radio show.

During his touring, he began his drinking problem. This lead to many problems with trying to get new band members after the draft and he was fired from his radio show. He was even warned by one of his idols, Roy Acuff, about the dangers of drinking. After he was fired, he moved to Mobile, Alabama where he worked at a shipyard and performed in bars for the soldiers. Then in 1943, he met Audrey Sheppard who later became his wife. She encouraged Williams to return to Montgomery and start a new band with her. In 1945, he started performing at the radio station again. He continued to write songs and his wife would perform duets with him. It was not until September of 1946 that he got a record deal with Sterling records.  His recording with them got Williams recognized by MGM records who he signed with in 1947.  This made his career skyrocket.  In 1949, Williams made his debut on The Grand Ole Opry where he became the first artist to receive six encores. That same year Audrey gave birth to Hank Williams JR, who would later became another country music icon.

His career continued to grow and in 1951, he was in a hunting accident which caused many back problems and his alcoholism to get worse. He also became addicted painkillers. This lead to him being fired from the Grand Ole Opry and the divorce of him and Audrey.  In 1952, he started having heart problems, which lead to his death in December.

Roy Acuff

Roy Acuff

        For this week’s Country Music Great I have chosen Roy Acuff. Acuff originally did not want to become an entertainer. He was going to try out for a Major League baseball team but never made it because he had sunstroke while on a fishing trip. During recovery, he decided that baseball was out of the question. That is when he decided to learn to play the fiddle and to sing. He started out being an assistant on a medicine man show. There he traveled around but never got his big break until he started to perform the old gospel song "The Great Speckled Bird." After many performances of this song, Acuff was asked to record the song with ARC, who distributes records nationally. During this recording session, he also recorded one of his most famous songs, the "Wabash Cannonball."

This made his career take off. The Grand Ole Opry asked him to perform in 1938 and he did such a wonderful job that they asked him to be on their list of full-time performers. He stayed on at the Opry for many years. In 1942, he started his own music publishing company with another songwriter, Fred Rose. During the 1950s, he focused on touring and did not come out with any big hits but in 1962, he was the first living person to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Afterwards he continued to tour but by the end of the 1960s, he decided to quit touring and just work at the Grand Ole Opry.  There he stayed until the 1980s, when he decided to quit because his health was getting the better of him. He did though buy a house near the Grand Ole Opry so that he could still see his friends and the fans. Then in 1992 he died from heart failure, leaving behind a huge legacy.