Hank Williams: The Biography

by Escott, Colin, and Macewen, William, and Merritt, George

Description

Little Brown and Company, 1995. Trade paperback. New. BRAND NEW! PLEASE ALLOW 7-10 DAYS EXTRA FOR DELIVERY OF THIS U.S.TITLE

Book summary

The tale of one of the most influential country singers who ever lived is a compelling mix of triumph over adversity and defeat at the hands of deep-rooted family characteristics. Born into a poor Alabama family in 1923, Hiram Williams (he later changed his name to Hank) was probably afflicted with spina bifida from birth, and perhaps only drawn to music because his resulting frailty unsuited him for the other available occupations of farming or logging. Hank Williams began his professional career around 1937, getting his first breaks by entering talent shows in Alabama--eventually winning so many of them that he was requested to stay away. His journey from the music halls of the Deep South to a sordid death in the back of a car outside Oak Hill, West Virginia, and into country music legend, is related in stark detail in Colin Escott's meticulously researched and convincingly told story, HANK WILLIAMS: THE BIOGRAPHY, which not only lays to rest many old myths about the singer, but, controversially, is also unsparingly critical about what the author perceives as the venality displayed by many of those closest to him, including family members.