On this day in 1923, Hank Williams was born. Just 29 years later, he was gone. Like Hendrix, Morrison, and Cobain though, in a short time he managed to create a body of work that would be around far longer and would influence hundreds after him.

It’s hard to imagine the whole genre of country music without Hank Williams in it. Even if you can’t stand county and think you don’t know his songs, you probably know 10 or 12. You might even know the words to half of them subconsciously. That’s how much influence he has had on American music.

I have lived in Nashville twice, close to 14 years combined, so I couldn’t leave Montgomery, Alabama last week without stopping in the Hank Williams Museum. Since I was staying at the Renaissance Hotel there I had even less of an excuse to skip it: the museum is right across the street. And how cool is that logo pictured here?

This is a funky little museum built with lots of love, containing a treasure trove of artifacts and the singer’s belongings. Some are on loan, some have been donated, many came from son Hank Williams, Jr., who has managed to outlive his father by several decades. There’s an awesome powder blue Cadillac convertible that Hank Williams rode around in and the back seat of it was where he spent his final night on a trip up north to a performance. Kind of creepy to see a car that someone died in on display, but it’s a really nice car…

There are also some crazy over-the-top stage costumes with rhinestones aplenty and music notes down the sleeves, plus an array of boots to go with them. Sheet music, album covers, and silly souvenir items from when he was alive combine with movie posters of a film about him after and some nifty Japanese 45 covers grouped together. All the while you can hear his voice coming out of the speakers, hit after hit and great song after great song.

Naturally they gloss over the more unsavory aspects of the tragic hero’s life: heavy drinking, a morphine addiction from a back pain condition, plus two marriages in eight years and a daughter from a third woman. Hey, as many successful songwriters have said, clean and boring lives seldom lead to great lyrics.

If you’re still craving more after the museum, there’s a whole Hank Williams Trail with his grave site, the place where he ate chili dogs (the restaurant is still open), a cabin of his an hour north, and more. It might be bad luck though to do all this while playing the song of his that was at the top of the charts the week he died: “I’ll never get out of this world alive.”

Related posts:

1. Radio Songs: Robin and Linda Williams
2. Welcome to Happy Town, USA
3. Hawaii statehood: pain behind the happy aloha
4. Hungarian Wine and Happy Writers

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 6:54 am and is filed under US travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.