Hank Williams

Hank Williams
Author: William MacEwen
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2009-05-30
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0316074632

- 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print since its first publication in 1994.- This new edition has been completely updated and includes many previously unpublished photographs, as well as a complete catalog detailing all the songs Hank Williams ever wrote, even those he never recorded.- Colin Escott is codirector and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.

Lovesick Blues

Lovesick Blues
Author: Paul Hemphill
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2006-08-29
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0143037714

Hank Williams, the quintessential country music singer and songwriter, lived a life as lonesome, desolate, and filled with sorrow as his timeless songs. From Williams's dirt- poor beginnings as a sickly child to his emergence as a star of the Grand Ole Opry, Lovesick Blues is the definitive biography of the man and his music.

Family Tradition

Family Tradition
Author: Susan Masino
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2011-04-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1617131113

Covering three generations of Hank Williams, Family Tradition is both unique and vast in scope. Beginning in the present day with Hank III – who gave the author unprecedented access – and time-traveling across the years, this examines just what kind of rebel mojo inspired this crazed family of country music, from Hank Sr. – often regarded as one of the most influential of American musicians – to Hank Jr., to this year's model, Hank III, who has somehow found a way to reconcile his legacy's deep-rooted twang and high-lonesome sound with particularly searing strains of punk and heavy metal, launching an all-out war with traditional Nashville in the process. Listen to Susan Masino live at Book Expo America on the BEA Podcast.

Sing a Sad Song

Sing a Sad Song
Author: Roger M. Williams
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 1981
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780252008610

Few American entertainers have had the explosive impact, wide-ranging appeal, and continuing popularity of country music star Hank Williams. Such Williams standards as "Your Cheatin' Heart," "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," "Jambalaya," and "I Saw the Light" have all entered the pantheon of great American song. Roger Williams recounts the story of Hank's rise from impoverished Southern roots, his coming of age during and after World War II, his meteoric climb to national acclaim and star status on the Grand Ole Opry, his chronic bouts with alcoholism and the alienation it created in those he loved and sang for, and finally his tragic death at twenty-nine and subsequent emergence as a folk hero. The book also features a thorough discography compiled by Bob Pinson of the Country Music Foundation.

Hank Williams

Hank Williams
Author: Colin Escott
Publisher: Da Capo Press, Incorporated
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2001-10-21
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

His formal interviews barely filled a page, and even those who claimed him as a friend admit they barely knew him.".

I Saw the Light

I Saw the Light
Author: William MacEwen
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2015-11-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0316315060

The book that inspired the major motion picture I Saw the Light. In his brief life, Hank Williams created one of the defining bodies of American music. Songs such as "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Hey, Good Lookin'," and "Jambalaya" sold millions of records and became the model for virtually all country music that followed. But by the time of his death at age twenty-nine, Williams 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 music's top seller, toward the end he was so famously unreliable that he was lucky to get a booking in a beer hall. Colin Escott's enthralling, definitive biograph -- now the basis of the major motion picture I Saw the Light -- vividly details the singer's stunning rise and his spectacular decline, revealing much that was previously unknown or hidden about the life of this country music legend. Originally published as Hank William: The Biography.

Your Cheatin' Heart

Your Cheatin' Heart
Author: Chet Flippo
Publisher: Biography of Hank Williams
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1997
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780859652322

When Hank Williams died in 1953 at the age of twenty-nine, from a lethal combination of alcohol and the pain killers he had used for years to ease the chronic pain of a congenital defect in the spine, he was already a legend. The first musician to lift country music out of the backwoods and into the popular music charts, he became the most influential country music singer and song-writer of the century. Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen have hailed him as a major influence, and his songs have been recorded by such diverse artists as Elvis Costello and The Carpenters. Chet Flippo's compelling biography is a fascinating tribute to a musician and his world, a history of country music encapsulated in one man's career.

The Hank Williams Reader

The Hank Williams Reader
Author: Patrick Huber
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2014-01-31
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0199349886

When Hank Williams died on New Year's Day 1953 at the age of twenty-nine, his passing appeared to bring an abrupt end to a saga of rags-to-riches success and anguished self-destruction. As it turned out, however, an equally gripping story was only just beginning, as Williams's meteoric rise to stardom, extraordinary musical achievements, turbulent personal life, and mysterious death all combined to make him an endlessly intriguing historical figure. For more than sixty years, an ever-lengthening parade of journalists, family and friends, musical contemporaries, biographers, historians and scholars, ordinary fans, and novelists have attempted to capture in words the man, the artist, and the legend. The Hank Williams Reader, the first book of its kind devoted to this giant of American music, collects more than sixty of the most compelling, insightful, and historically significant of these writings. Among them are many pieces that have never been reprinted or that are published here for the first time. The selections cover a broad assortment of themes and perspectives, ranging from heartfelt reminiscences by Williams's relatives and shocking tabloid exposés to thoughtful meditations by fellow artists and penetrating essays by prominent scholars and critics. Over time, writers have sought to explain Williams in a variety of ways, and in tracing these shifting interpretations, this anthology chronicles his cultural transfiguration from star-crossed hillbilly singer-songwriter to enduring American icon. The Hank Williams Reader also features a lengthy interpretive introduction and the most extensive bibliography of Williams-related writings ever published.

Dear Hank Williams

Dear Hank Williams
Author: Kimberly Willis Holt
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2015-04-14
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1627794433

It's 1948 in Rippling Creek, Louisiana, and Tate P. Ellerbee's new teacher has just given her class an assignment—learning the art of letter-writing. Luckily, Tate has the perfect pen pal in mind: Hank Williams, a country music singer whose star has just begun to rise. Tate and her great-aunt and -uncle listen to him on the radio every Saturday night, and Tate just knows that she and Hank are kindred spirits. Told entirely through Tate's hopeful letters, this beautifully drawn novel from National Book Award–winning author Kimberly Willis Holt gradually unfolds a story of family love, overcoming tragedy, and an insightful girl learning to find her voice. This title has Common Core connections.

Sign of Life

Sign of Life
Author: Hilary Williams
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2010-11-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0306819414

Just after noon on a spring day in 2006, aspiring singer songwriter Hilary Williams and her sister Holly – the granddaughters of country legend Hank Williams and daughters of country music star Hank Williams Jr. – were driving through Mississippi down a rural stretch of Route 61 on their way to their grandfather’s funeral. Suddenly, the front wheel of the truck became caught in one of the many deep ruts and gravel lining the road, causing the vehicle and its passengers to flip over several times, crushing steel and breaking fragile bones as it crashed. Holly was lucky. She only suffered a broken wrist and cuts and bruises. But when the Jaws of Life finally pried Hilary's shattered body free of the wreckage, she was in shock and barely breathing.She had suffered two broken legs, several broken ribs, a ruptured colon, and bruised lungs. Her back, collarbone, tailbone, pelvis, and right femur were fractured. Her hips were crushed. It had taken nearly 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, and she had already lost a large amount of blood. Then, as EMTs scrambled to stabilize her in the middle of a muddy Mississippi field, Hilary Williams died. But that was only the beginning. This is a story of struggle and pain. But more so, it is a story of second chances, of love and resolve and recovery. When she was pulled back into life, Hilary’s world changed. It was the beginning of a long, courageous, and inspiring journey during which she would undergo twenty-three surgeries and years of therapy. Along the way, with her family at her side, Hilary has learned the meaning of strength, not only the strength to survive, but the strength to live with the legend, the talent, the burden, and the privilege of her place in country music’s most famous family.