Hank: The Short Life and Long Country Road of Hank Williams

by Mark Ribowsky Narrated by Tom Perkins

Overview

After he died in the backseat of a Cadillac at the age of twenty-nine, Hank Williams?a frail, flawed man who had become country music's first real star?instantly morphed into its first tragic martyr. Having hit the heights with simple songs of despair, depression, and tainted love, he would, with that outlaw swagger, become in death a template for the rock generation to follow. Six decades later, Mark Ribowsky now weaves together the first fully realized biography of Hank Williams in a generation. Examining his music while also re-creating days and nights choked in booze and desperation, Ribowsky traces the miraculous rise of this music legend?from the dirt roads of rural Alabama to the now-immortal stage of the Grand Ole Opry, and finally to a sad, lonely end on New Year's Day, 1953. The result is an original work that promises to uncover the real Hank beneath the myths that have long enshrouded his legacy.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

12/05/2016
Country singer Hank Williams’s story is already so well known that Ribowsky’s (Dreams to Remember) entertaining, critical biography reveals no newly uncovered information about him. Nevertheless, Ribowsky is an engaging storyteller, and he tells Williams’ story with such verve and humor—albeit with some over-the-top phrasing (“he was a dysfunction junction”; “Hank seemed like an afterthought lying carefree in a casket”)—that Williams and his music come alive. He chronicles Williams’s childhood in Alabama; his marriage to Audrey Mae Sheppard Guy, and their miserable but symbiotic relationship; his slow but sure rise to country music stardom on the Grand Ole Opry and WSM radio; his marriage to Billie Jean Eshliman; and his death in the back of his Cadillac on January 1, 1953, at the age of 29. Ribowsky offers cunning readings of Williams’s songs: “Mansion on the Hill,” he says, reflects a familiar Williams template that is “part croon, part hoedown, and a metaphoric lament of loneliness and the promise of a reward too far.” Williams emerges from Ribowsky’s powerful biography not only as the author of many familiar country and pop favorites, such as “Hey, Good Lookin’ ” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” but also as a man whose back pain drove him to drink and pills and whose soul was filled more often with gloom than with light. (Nov.)

David Kirby

"A compassionate yet clear-eyed study of the iconic country star. . . . It’s to [Ribowsky’s] credit that he gets as close to Williams as any writer could. . . . . Hank Williams was a tortured poet who died before most Americans today were born, but he’ll outlive us all."

John Williams

"A timely biography…Ribowsky has taken on a truly harrowing life."

Wall Street Journal - Eddie Dean

"A new biography that exhumes the strange case of the poet and the peckerwood. . . . [Hank] offers a feast of juicy anecdotes and sharp analysis that should satisfy devotees and attract newcomers to the fold. It’s the most Hank you can get in a single helping—and the most you’d probably want. Williams is always good company, especially around last call."

Library Journal

★ 11/15/2016
Hank Williams (1923–53) remains one of the most fascinating artists in popular country music. A troubled troubadour who wrote a great number of classic pioneering country songs, he died tragically at age 29. This story has been told in several previous biographies (the best being Colin Escott's I Saw the Light: The Story of Hank Williams). Ribowsky has written myriad biographies, with subjects ranging from musicians Otis Redding and James Taylor to sports figures Satchel Paige and Howard Cosell. His engaging, informative style makes Williams come alive again 63 years after his death. With such a legendary figure, this book succeeds in painting a seemingly more realistic picture of his life. Exploring Williams's issues with his mother, Jessie, and the fiery, alcoholic, druggy relationship with his on-again, off-again wife, Audrey, gives insight into his most famous songs. Both of them were personally involved in different ways with his career, and both had good and bad influences on how things turned out. VERDICT This book improves upon I Saw the Light and is probably the greatest biography yet. Highly recommended for all popular music collections.—Bill Walker, Stockton-San Joaquin Cty. P.L., CA

Kirkus Review

Sept. 6, 2016
“Everything he did was bad for his health”: a sturdy biography of the unsteady icon of outlaw country avant la lettre.Luke the Drifter. The Hillbilly Shakespeare. Before Elvis came along, the King. Hiram King Williams (1923-1953) bore many names and monikers, as befits someone constantly on the move. When he became famous as a musician, being on the move was a requirement; Williams had to get from one gig to another, no matter how drunk or drugged he might be when he took the stage. But even early on, writes Florida-based music journalist Ribowsky (Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines: The Life and Music of James Taylor, 2016, etc.), Williams was used to life on the go, his father often traveling on his railroad job, sometimes a step away from the poorhouse. Born with a spinal defect, Williams channeled his pain into music but then, once the music was on paper or acetate, tried to move that pain farther along with an appalling diet of morphine, pharmaceuticals, and booze, all of which hastened his death. As Ribowsky notes, several templates were thus established, from death by prescription-happy doctor (Elvis, Michael Jackson) to country star as soused or pilled-up rebel (Johnny Cash, George Jones). The author is very good on the culture that surrounded Williams, enshrined by an Alabaman who told him, “you do what you gotta do on Saturday night, then go to church on Sunday morning and make it all right with God.” Though defiantly separatist, that culture, in Williams’ case, was laced with the blues and gospel as much as mountain music. Ribowsky covers the details of Williams’ untidy personal life without undue sensationalism, and if it lacks the intellectual depth of a Greil Marcus or the lived-in encyclopedism of a Peter Guralnick, his book is just fine for what it is, a decidedly warts-and-all portrait of a man more revered than listened to these days. It’s not every 29-year-old who can pack enough into a life to warrant a 500-page biography—and a good one at that.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171332945
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	11/22/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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