Every once in a while a book surprises me. Not expecting anything fantastic, it turns out to be a gem. This is true of a new biography "Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams" by Paul Hemphill. "Lovesick Blues" is not a long book. It can easily be read in a day or two; however, it packs a punch. In Hemphill’s hands Hank Williams’ life rushes along out-of-control like a freight train barreling down a mountain toward certain destruction. As any Hank Williams’ fan knows, his was a short life. Williams died at the age of twenty-nine after years of abusing his body with alcohol--a brief, tormented life, but what an incredible talent!

Growing up outside of Birmingham, Alabama, Hemphill like Williams is a child of the South. His daddy was an over-the-road trucker who lived and breathed country music. Hemphill’s biography begins with memories of his daddy and of listening to Hank Williams sing "Lovesick Blues" on the Motorola radio that was "jury-rigged" to the old truck’s dashboard. Although they had heard him sing before on the radio from the Grand Ole Opry, Williams had never sounded like this. "Hank Williams’s songs were cries from the darkness; made to be heard, it seemed to us, while running through the lonely night, racing with the moon, the wind whistling through the cab…"

Born in rural Alabama, suffering from spina bifida, Williams’ health was always poor. His father was absent. His mother was overbearing. The dirt poor, sickly kid survived by shining shoes and singing for coins on the street. By the age of twelve he was getting drunk on moonshine at backwoods country-dances and was an alcoholic by the time he was a teenager. Hank developed his talent in the honky-tonks and roadhouses of the Deep South where chicken wire often separated the band from the crowd. He mined his life for the misery in his songs. Hank Williams career was short but meteoric. It spanned only three and a half years from his debut at the Grand Ole Opry to his death. He died alone in the backseat of his Cadillac, "…so lonesome I could cry…" "Lovesick Blues" is a deeply moving book about a tortured country music genius.

Hank Williams’ CDs available at the library.

" Timeless". Hank Williams music performed by a variety of artists, including Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, and Bob Dylan.

" Hank Williams and the Drifting Cowboys". A 2 CD set.

Other biographies of music icons include the following:

"Sinatra: The Life" by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan. Coverage of Sinatra’s early career, organized crime associations, and relations with women is thorough, but coverage of his later life in somewhat incomplete.

"Memories of John Lennon" edited by Yoko Ono. Yoko Ono has compiled reminiscences of John Lennon by a variety of people who knew him.

"Elvis by the Presleys" by Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley and others. This is a "coffee table book" which includes a large selection of pictures of Elvis as well as pictures of Elvis memorabilia.

"Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin" by David Evanier. Darin’s belief that he would not live a long life drove him to succeed. He died of heart disease at thirty-seven.

:: Go to Library Home ::