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Article: Hanks for the memory Hank Williams devotee Mike Gerrard goes to Alabama on the trail of the godfather of country music
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- August 31, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2001 Evening Standard - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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HANK used to sit on these steps," she told me as we approached the
house. Not much of a statement but it sent a shiver through me. I was
in a place I thought I'd never be. When the country legend Hank
Williams was a boy, he would sit on these steps in rural Alabama and
play the comb and paper, his first musical instrument. When I was a
boy in the north of England, the music of Hank Williams permeated the
council house I grew up in, thanks to my father.
At that age, I just liked the sound and the bright yellow labels
on the MGM 78s. You have to live a little to know why songs like Your
Cheatin' Heart and I'm So Lonesome-I Could Cry can rip you apart, as
Hank Williams put his life into his ...