Hank Williams Sr: Country Singer, Songwriter, Honky Tonk Music, Blues And Drifting Cowboys

Hank Williams Sr is known today as the father of today's country music. The songs of Hank Williams Sr impacted a generation, and amazingly, his stardom only lasted around four years. Like many young singers who rocket to celebrity, Hank Williams Sr died long before his time at the age of 29, but his impact still echoes today in the hearts and minds of many.
Born Hiram King Williams, he was a small, skinny child. Not as athletic as other children, Hiram King Williams was given a guitar by his mother at age 8, and he took to it like a fish to water. Tutored by a local blues musician named Rufus Payne, young Hank learned to play and sing the blues, which heavily influenced his work in later years. As a teenager, Hank Williams Sr began to get gigs in a few bars, and when his mother moved to Montgomery, Hank made the best of the situation. He formed a band which he named the Drifting Cowboys and began to get a regular spot on the local radio.
In 1943 Hank Williams Sr met Audrey Mae Sheppard while playing in a medicine show, and within 3 years Audrey was not only his manager, but his wife as well. By 1946, Hank Williams Sr had become a local celebrity but had yet to achieve any sort of national renown. Later that year, Hank Williams Sr and Audrey went to meet Fred Rose, a songwriter and music publisher who was head of Acuff-Rose Publishing. Rose liked what he saw of Hank Williams Sr and commissioned him to make two singles, "Never Again" and "Honky Tonkin',"which were both successful. It did not take long for Rose to take over as Hank Williams Sr's manager and record producer.
In the following years, Hank Williams Sr began to find a little national success, but struggled to really make a name for himself outside of Alabama. It wasn't until 1949, with a reassembled Drifting Cowboys band and the new song "Lovesick Blues" that Hank Williams Sr finally ascended to the peak of country stardom. When he performed "Lovesick Blues" at the Grand Ole Opry that year, it was received with hysterical enthusiasm and the audience asked for an unbelievable six encores. 1949 was also the year his first child was born, Randall Hank, and things seemed as if they couldn't be better for Hank Williams Sr.
Despite his newfound success, Hank Williams Sr was falling apart off stage. The singer drove those close to him away, even his wife Audrey found that she could not be around Hank. Audrey left Hank Williams Sr for good in 1952 and he began to drink frequently. His songs were often sad laments, and reflected his depression out of the lime-light. He remarried to Billie Jean Jones but this did nothing to save the spiraling country music star.
In 1953, while being driven to a show in the back seat of his Cadillac, Hank Williams Sr passed away. Though Hank passed on, his fame lingered and a generation of country singers who grew up listening to Hank's songs like "Honky Tonkin'" and "Lovesick Blues" found inspiration for a new breed of country music. In 1961, Hank Williams Sr was one of the first inductees in the Country Music Hall of Fame, a fitting tribute to a burnt out star who did what he loved until the day he died.


Sources:
"Hank Williams." Alabama Music Hall of Fame. 2007. 4 July 2007. http://www.alamhof.org/williamh.htm
"Hank Williams: A Look Back. Alabama Department of Archives and History." 14 December 2001. 4 July 2007. http://www.archives.state.al.us/hank/
"Hank Biography." Mercury Records. 2000. Universal Music Group. 4 July 2007. http://www.hankwilliams.com/hankbio_1.html