The Hank Williams Reader

Download or read book The Hank Williams Reader written by Patrick Huber and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-31 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Hank Williams written by William MacEwen and published by Back Bay Books. This book was released on 2009-05-30 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: - 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print since its first publication in 1994.- This new edition has been completely updated and includes many previously unpublished photographs, as well as a complete catalog detailing all the songs Hank Williams ever wrote, even those he never recorded.- Colin Escott is codirector and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.

Download or read book Hank Williams written by Colin Escott and published by Da Capo Press, Incorporated. This book was released on 2001-10-21 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: His formal interviews barely filled a page, and even those who claimed him as a friend admit they barely knew him.".

Download or read book Dear Hank Williams written by Kimberly Willis Holt and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2015-04-14 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book I Saw the Light written by William MacEwen and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2015-11-10 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Family Tradition written by Susan Masino and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Hank Hung the Moon-- and Warmed Our Cold Cold Hearts written by Rheta Grimsley Johnson and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arguably the first country music superstar, the late Hank Williams has been written about in many books. What makes this little volume special is its original approach. Johnson (Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming: A Memoir), a native of the American South and a reporter and columnist for Southern newspapers for over 30 years, doesn't try to recap the artist's life; rather, she presents several essays on how the music and the legend affected her life. In one especially engaging chapter, she discusses interviewing and getting to know Williams's lone, illegitimate daughter, Jett Williams. Verdict This very readable book paints many vivid pictures of life in Alabama and other Southern states in the 1940s-60s. Thus, it brings to life the time and the place through the prism of the poetry and storytelling of one of the South's authentic heroes. Recommended.-Bill Walker, Cesar Chavez Central Lib., Stockton, CA(c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.