Hank Williams Research Paper

These two are both country singers and both are well known country singers, Hank Williams Sr. and Willie Nelson are some of the best known classics, when one thinks of country, these two names come to mind. Hanks Williams Sr. was born on September 17, 1923, and Willie Nelson was born on April 29, 1933. Today, currently, Willie Nelson is still alive while, unfortunately Hank Williams Sr. is not. Hank Williams Sr. died on New Year Day of 1953. Willie Nelson is the son of Myrle and Ira D. Nelson, they were sixteen when they had Willie Nelson. Though after Willie’s sister was born they left him and his sister Bobbie with Ira’s parents so that they could go and play music with a band. Their grandparents raised them in the Great Depression, so

He grew up in a poor household, his father Lon was a logger but entered the Veteran Administration hospital for a brain aneurysm, so Hank did not see his father very often for the next decade or so. Meanwhile Hank's mother worked at a cannery and was night shift nurse. Hank had a spinal condition, spina bifida, so he grew up being set apart from other kids his age. Hank William’s identified with music that came from the radio and the church choir music. He quickly learned how to play folk, country; and heavily influenced by a black street performer by the name of /rufus Payne who taught him the blues. He was the one to give William guitar lessons in exchange for home cooked meals by Lillie Williams. William’s received his first guitar when he was just eight years old, and thirteen when he was first on the radio. So when Lillie William’s moved in 1937 with Hank, his music career was already blossoming. A year after moving he had formed his own band called: Hank and his Drifting Cowboys. William’s mother fully supported his musical aspirations. And by the 1940’s he had the music executives in Nashville looking at

He used it so to relieve his excruciating back pain. In 1946 Williams met with publisher Fred Rose of the Acuff-Rose Publications, he started out writing music for Molly O’Day, until he got a record contract with MGM. Williams had his first hit “Move IT On Over” and the again a second on the chart success”Honky Tonkin”. Even with all these successes that Williams was having he was not doing well. He would show up drunk at his performances and briefly ruined his relationship with Fred Rose. It was not until he met Audrey Mae Sheppard that he took a turn for the better. He married her on May 26, 1949 and had a son together: Hank Williams Jr. In the same year he married Sheppard he has a number one hit called “Lovesick Blues”. It was a “throwaway rendition of an old show tune he’d pushed to tape at the end of a recording session.” Though Williams cranked out a lot of well received albums William’s still depended on alcohol and morphine. It was the start of troubled times for him. He divorced Sheppard and in 1952 was fired from Opry. He started to go downhill too, he gained extra weight and started losing hair. In 1951 he had a minor heart attack, and later in a hotel in Tennessee, but was cleared for travel. New Year’s Day of 1953 Williams was pronounced dead. Though he was dead it did not stop his stardom, he is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Pulitzer Board