Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Hank Williams The Biography by Colin Escott Hank Williams: The Biography by Colin Escott. During his life Hank Williams brought out a small booklet; "How to write folk and western music to sell" . It was written by Hank Williams and Jimmy Rule (see picture) After his death many biographies appeared. I think the one written by Collin Escott is the best. Here's a short list; "Hank Williams, the biography" , Colin Escott with George Merritt and William MacEwen, 1994, First Paperback Edition. "So Lonesome, Hank Williams" , Bill Koon, 2001, University Press of Mississippi. "Hank Williams: a bio-bibliography in popular culture" , George William Koon, 1983, Greenwood Press. "Your cheatin' heart" , Chet Flippo, 1981, Simon and Schuster. "Hank Williams, snapshots from the lost highway" , Collin Escott and Kira Florita, 2001, Da Capo Press. "Still in love with you" , Lycrecia Williams and Dale Vinicur, 1989, Rutledge Hill Press. "Ain't nothin' as sweet as my baby , the story of Hank Williams' lost daughter" , Jett Williams and Pamela Thomas, 1990, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Photographs. The Skippers and McNeils, circa 1925. Lilly is on the far left, with her hands on Hank, next to her brother-in-law, Walter McNeil. In the front row, Hank’s cousin J. C. McNeil is fifth from the right; his sister, Irene, is third from the right; his cousin Bernice McNeil is second from the right; and his cousin Marie McNeil is at the far right. (COURTESY OF THE CITY OF GEORGIANA) Hank, Lilly, Irene, and J. C. McNeil in front of the W. T. Smith log train. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION) Georgiana, Alabama. (COURTESY OF THE CITY OF GEORGIANA) Hank in Montgomery, circa 1940. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION) Hank and Pee Wee Moultrie. (COURTESY OF PEE WEE MOULTRIE) Hank and Audrey with Lilly and her third husband, J. C. Bozard. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION) Hank’s cousin Marie. (COURTESY OF LEWIS FITZGERALD) Hank with Lewis “Butch” Fitzgerald. (COURTESY OF LEWIS FITZGERALD) Stars of WSFA. Left to right top: Sammy Pruett, Hank, unknown, Audrey, Jimmy Webster. Bottom: Lum York. (COURTESY OF LUM YORK) Fred Rose and Roy Acuff. (GRAND OLE OPRY ARCHIVE ) The trade advertisement for Hank’s first record. (COLIN ESCOTT) Hank with Henry Clay, manager of KWKH, Shreveport. (COLIN ESCOTT) Audrey shortly after giving birth to Hank Jr. (MENASCO) Friends and nemeses. From left: Jimmie Davis, cowriter of “Lonesome Whistle”; Hank’s first manager, Oscar Davis; his first hero, Roy Acuff; West Coast promoter Foreman Phillips. (COLIN ESCOTT) Hank with Frank Walker, president of MGM Records. (COLIN ESCOTT) Hank and Lilly at the Montgomery Homecoming. (COLIN ESCOTT) Hank’s Montgomery Homecoming. (COURTESY OF JETT WILLIAMS) Hank and Audrey’s Corral. (COLIN ESCOTT) Hank on the Grand Ole Opry . (TSLA/ESCOTT) Mother’s Best li’l ol’ boys. From left: Cedric Rainwater, emcee Cousin Louie Buck, Sammy Pruett, Hank, Jerry Rivers, Don Helms. (COLIN ESCOTT) Shake ’n’ howdy in Dallas with young fan Darwin Dunn. (COURTESY OF DAVID DENNARD) Backstage at the Opry. (GRAND OLE OPRY ARCHIVES) Whistlin’ dixie. From left at rear: Hank, Jerry Rivers, Sammy Pruett, Cedric Rainwater, Don Helms. Front: Minnie Pearl. (GRAND OLE OPRY ARCHIVES) Staged arrest in Texas. (ESTATE OF HONEY WILDS) With Opry costars Jamup and Honey. (ESTATE OF HONEY WILDS) Greenville Homecoming. Hank is in the front seat with Butch Fitzgerald; Lilly is in the backseat. Lon Williams and Hank’s uncle Robert are standing beside the car, in which Hank would die some twenty-one weeks later. (GREENVILLE ADVOCATE) On the West Coast with songwriter Johnny Pusateri, April 1952. (ADAH) The drinks are on me. Hank with promoter Dub Allbritten, standing. (GLENN SUTTON) Billie Jean. (ADAH) “A picture from the past came slowly stealing….” Billie Jean. (COLIN ESCOTT) Hank marries Billie Jean, New Orleans, October 19, 1952. (MENASCO) Toby Marshall. (DAILY OKLAHOMAN) The last prescription (DAILY OKLAHOMAN) Billie Jean bids farewell. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION) Charles Carr, the driver from Hank’s last ride, comforts Marie at the funeral. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION) Irene and Lilly in Hank’s former bedroom. (ADAH) Lilly, Audrey, and Hank Jr. look over the letters of condolence. (ADAH) Audrey on the town with Jerry Lee and Linda Gail Lewis. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION) Hank Williams: The Biography Book Excerpt. Initially published in 1994, an updated version of Hank Williams: The Biography is being released in a new paperback edition. After emerging as one of country music’s most famous singers in the early 1950s, Williams often credited Alabama street musician Rufus “Tee-Tot” Payne as his musical mentor. In this excerpt from Hank Williams: The Biography , author Colin Escott explains the inspiration that Tee-Tot provided and why Williams was barely influenced by the first country superstar, Jimmie Rodgers. It was probably in Georgiana that Hank met his first acknowledged musical influence, a black street musician, Rufus Payne. Because Payne was rarely found without a home-brewed mix of alcohol and tea, Payne’s nickname was “Tee-Tot,” a pun on teetotaler. Details about him are not only sketchy, but contradictory as well. According to researcher Alice Harp, Rufus was born in 1884 on the Payne Plantation in Sandy Ridge, Lowndes County, Alabama. His parents had been slaves there, but they moved to New Orleans around 1890, giving Rufus a front-row seat for the birth of jazz. After his parents died, Rufus settled in Greenville, Alabama. Harp insists that Payne became a society musician, playing white functions, learning all the pop hits of the day. The musician that Hank’s cousins J.C. and Walter McNeil Jr. remembered was quite different. Payne, said J.C. McNeil, lived down by the tracks in Greenville and worked part-time at Peagler’s Drug Store as a cleaner and delivery person. Both McNeils remember that he had a hunched back and long arms that extended almost to his knees. “He would play the guitar and the cymbals,” said Walter McNeil. “He had the cymbals tied between his legs, and he had this thing around his neck with the jazz horn, I think he called it, and the Jew’s harp. And he could play all those things with the guitar and called himself a one-man band. He had a cigar box in front of him where you’d throw the money.” Tee-Tot, sometimes in the company of other musicians, went out into the surrounding towns to play on the sidewalks. Although Hank probably met him on the streets of Georgiana, he later told one of his band members, Lum York, that Tee-Tot was a janitor at the school in Greenville, implying that Hank met Tee-Tot after the Williamses moved to Greenville. A crowd of kids followed Tee-Tot around, but Hank was the only one who wanted to do more than listen. He wanted to learn. Exactly what passed between Hank Williams and Rufus Payne will never be known. If, as has often been said, Payne gave Hank lessons, it’s hard to know what he imparted. Hank probably already knew most of the chords that Payne knew, so perhaps the lessons involved broader strokes. J.C. McNeil, who insisted he also took lessons from Payne, said that Payne always stressed the importance of keeping time and getting a good rhythm going. Later, one of the elements that would set Hank apart from his contemporaries was the irresistible drive to his music. He was never an accomplished guitarist, but his bands would always take their cue from his forceful rhythm guitar playing. He whanged the E chord in a way that any blues singer would recognize. Rufus Payne almost certainly taught Hank some songs, and while Hank probably forgot most of them, he never lost the lazy swing and sock rhythm. The blues feel that permeates all but the goofiest of Hank’s songs is another thing that Rufus Payne probably brought out. Lilly [Williams, Hank’s mother] says she fed Payne in exchange for Hank’s lessons, but memories of him are otherwise vague. Some say he played the blues alone, others say that he led a little combo that played pop songs and hokum numbers. Irene [Hank’s sister] said that Payne once came to Lilly’s house and told her that Hank was going to get both of them into trouble by following him around, which seems to imply that Hank was quite determined in his pursuit. “More than anything,” said Walter McNeil, “I think Tee-Tot helped Hank get beyond his shyness, and helped him project himself a little, little more, ’cause Hank was a shy person really. He had to lose that somehow, and I think Tee-Tot was a big help to him in doing that.” As unfashionable as it was to acknowledge the influence of black musicians, Hank later went out of his way to give Payne full credit. “All the music training I ever had was from him,” he told the Montgomery Advertiser at the time of his 1951 Homecoming. Talking to jazz journalist Ralph J. Gleason the following year, he said, “I learned to play the guitar from an old colored man. … I’d give him fifteen cents, or whatever I could get a hold of for the lesson.” Hank acknowledged Payne again during his Greenville Homecoming and apparently searched for him, but Payne had died in a charity hospital in Montgomery on March 17, 1939. He was on relief at the time, and his trade or profession was marked “unknown” on the death certificate. Local musicians like Payne would have made a much bigger impression on Hank when he was growing up than the stars of the day. Lilly didn’t have a radio or phonograph, although Hank would try to listen to the radio at the [neighbor’s] house or in the local stores. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Hank was barely influenced by country music’s first superstar, Jimmie Rodgers, who succumbed to tuberculosis in 1933. Rodgers was the original kid with a guitar. Raised in Mississippi, he didn’t draw on folk ballads so much as jazz, blues, Hawaiian music and vaudeville. Like Hank, he turned to music in part because of a physical affliction. In place of Appalachian music’s piety and grim resignation, Rodgers’ music was populated by good-time pals one step ahead of the law, but still ready to shed a tear for mother and home. He sang with an insouciant, almost insolent drawl, and his sentimental parlor ballads were offset by rowdier songs, such as “In the Jailhouse Now,” “Waiting for a Train,” “Travelin’ Blues,” and “T for Texas.” Many of the biggest country stars of the 1940s and 1950s, notably Gene Autry, Ernest Tubb, Floyd Tillman, Lefty Frizzell and Hank Snow, began as Rodgers disciples and recorded his songs. Hank was a few years younger, just nine years old when Rodgers died. Jimmie Rodgers’ influence on Hank was less direct. Rodgers brought the barroom culture to country music, and inasmuch as Hank’s music came from the honky-tonk, he was a Rodgers disciple. Hank learned to yodel like Rodgers, but usually did no more than break occasionally into falsetto, and he probably learned that from blues singers. It was probably after Lilly moved to Greenville that she acquired a radio, broadening Hank’s horizons. Greenville was fifteen miles further up the L&N tracks toward Montgomery and was four times bigger than Georgiana. As the seat of Butler County, the focal point of the town was the courthouse square rather than the railroad station. Lilly moved her family there in time for Hank and Irene to start school in September 1934. Several of Hank’s contemporaries remember him bringing his guitar to school. He would play during the lunch break and tell people that to play and sing was his “highest ambition.” Hank Williams: The Biography. by Colin Escott , William Maceven , George Merritt. Browse related Subjects. His recording career lasted only six years, his spell at the top of his profession barely four, and he was only twenty-nine when a life of excess caught up with him. But in that brief span, Hank Williams created one of the greatest bodies of work in American music. Songs like "Your Cheatin' Heart" and "Hey Good Lookin'" and "Jambalaya" sold millions, crossed over from the country to the pop charts, and became the model for all country music that followed. But by the time of his death, Hank had drunk and drugged and . Read More. His recording career lasted only six years, his spell at the top of his profession barely four, and he was only twenty-nine when a life of excess caught up with him. But in that brief span, Hank Williams created one of the greatest bodies of work in American music. Songs like "Your Cheatin' Heart" and "Hey Good Lookin'" and "Jambalaya" sold millions, crossed over from the country to the pop charts, and became the model for all country music that followed. But by the time of his death, Hank had drunk and drugged and philandered his way through two messy marriages and out of his headline spot on the Grand Ole Opry. Even though he was country's top seller, toward the end he was so famously unreliable that he was lucky to get a booking in a beer hall. Drawing on years of impeccable research and powerful first-person accounts to create the most full- blooded portrait of Williams ever, Hank Williams: The Biography is a masterful account of Hank Williams's stunning rise and spectacular decline. It discards the myths to reveal a driven, disorderly life, one that swung between unimaginable success and unutterable miseries. He was raised by a woman who alternately lavished affection on him and made unreasonable demands. His impoverished childhood sent him onto the streets of Montgomery, Alabama, to earn money first by selling peanuts, later by singing. He left behind a stormy home life for an even stormier marriage to a would-be singer who grew increasingly embittered by Hank's success - and by his drinking and endless touring. That marriage ended in a nasty divorce, and the next began in a media circus, a public wedding in an auditorium with spectators paying to watch. Just weeks after his secondmarriage, his life spiraled out of control, finally leaving Hank dead in the backseat of his Cadillac on New Year's Day 1953. This biography unfolds Williams's life and times in telling detail, with extraordinary attention to the music that is his legacy. It also reveals much th Read Less. All Copies ( 31 ) Softcover ( 20 ) Hardcover ( 10 ) Choose Edition ( 2 ) Book Details Seller Sort. 1995, Little Brown and Company. College Park, MD, USA. Edition: 1995, Little Brown and Company Trade paperback, Good Details: ISBN: 0316249386 ISBN-13: 9780316249386 Pages: 336 Edition: First Publisher: Little Brown and Company Published: 1995 Language: English Alibris ID: 15816800598 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. [ No Hassle 30 Day Returns ] [ Edition: First ] Publisher: Little Brown and Company Pub Date: 7/1/1995 Binding: Paperback Pages: 336. ► Contact This Seller. 1995, Little Brown and Company. Edition: 1995, Little Brown and Company Trade paperback, Good Details: ISBN: 0316249386 ISBN-13: 9780316249386 Pages: 336 Publisher: Little Brown and Company Published: 07/1995 Language: English Alibris ID: 16297536455 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. All pages and cover are intact. Possible slightly loose binding, minor highlighting and marginalia, cocked spine or torn dust jacket. Maybe an ex-library copy and not include the accompanying CDs, access codes or other supplemental materials. ► Contact This Seller. 1995, Little Brown and Company. Brownstown, MI, USA. Edition: 1995, Little Brown and Company Trade paperback, Very Good Details: ISBN: 0316249386 ISBN-13: 9780316249386 Pages: 336 Publisher: Little Brown and Company Published: 1995 Language: English Alibris ID: 16679139721 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. 1995, Little Brown and Company. Edition: 1995, Little Brown and Company Trade paperback, Very Good Details: ISBN: 0316249386 ISBN-13: 9780316249386 Pages: 336 Publisher: Little Brown and Company Published: 1995 Language: English Alibris ID: 16650184662 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. 1995, Little Brown and Company. Edition: 1995, Little Brown and Company Trade paperback, Good Details: ISBN: 0316249386 ISBN-13: 9780316249386 Pages: 336 Publisher: Little Brown and Company Published: 1995 Language: English Alibris ID: 16637248602 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. 1995, Little Brown and Company. Brooklyn Park, MN, USA. Edition: 1995, Little Brown and Company Trade paperback, Fair Details: ISBN: 0316249386 ISBN-13: 9780316249386 Pages: 336 Publisher: Little Brown and Company Published: 1995 Language: English Alibris ID: 16629015936 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. Cover has some rubbing and edge wear. Access codes, CD's, and other accessories may not be included. All items ship Mon-Fri. ► Contact This Seller. 1995, Little Brown and Company. Edition: 1995, Little Brown and Company Hardcover, Fair Details: ISBN: 0316249866 ISBN-13: 9780316249867 Pages: 336 Publisher: Little Brown and Company Published: 06/1994 Language: English Alibris ID: 16665505517 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. ► Contact This Seller. 1995, Little Brown and Company. Edition: 1995, Little Brown and Company Trade paperback, Good Details: ISBN: 0316249386 ISBN-13: 9780316249386 Pages: 336 Publisher: Little Brown and Company Published: 1995 Language: English Alibris ID: 16504766652 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972. Used books may not include companion materials, some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, and may not include cd-rom or access codes. Customer service is our top priority! ► Contact This Seller. 1995, Little Brown and Company. Edition: 1995, Little Brown and Company Trade paperback, Good Details: ISBN: 0316249386 ISBN-13: 9780316249386 Pages: 336 Publisher: Little Brown and Company Published: 1995 Language: English Alibris ID: 16480515786 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972. Used books may not include companion materials, some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, and may not include cd-rom or access codes. Customer service is our top priority! ► Contact This Seller. 1995, Little Brown and Company. Edition: 1995, Little Brown and Company Trade paperback, Good Details: ISBN: 0316249386 ISBN-13: 9780316249386 Pages: 336 Publisher: Little Brown and Company Published: 1995 Language: English Alibris ID: 16448581963 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Hank Williams. - Long considered the last word on Hank Williams, this biography has remained continuously in print since its first publication in 1994.- This new edition has been completely updated and includes many previously unpublished photographs, as well as a complete catalog detailing all the songs Hank Williams ever wrote, even those he never recorded.- Colin Escott is codirector and cowriter of the forth-coming two-hour PBS/BBC television documentary on Hank Williams, set to broadcast in spring 2004, and coauthor of "Hank Williams: Snapshots from the Lost Highway.- HANK WILLIAMS was the third-prize winner of the prestigious Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY OCT 1, 2001. When Hank Williams died in the backseat of a car at age 29, he left behind grieving fans, friends and family, as well as eight guns, eight pairs of boots, 11 hats and a saddle. Hank Williams: Snapshots from the Lost Highway by Colin Escott and Kira Florita gathers together just about every last piece of paper having anything do to with country music's greatest and most tragic star (hence the postmortem inventory). Much of the material is new: included in this volume are the handwritten lyrics to 30 songs never recorded or published, private family correspondence and some 150 previously unpublished photographs, including Hank's first baby photo.