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N0KFQ > TODAY 12.06.11 00:35l 57 Lines 2822 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jun 11
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Sent: 110611/2221Z 8799@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.0.4
Jun 11, 1949:
Hank Williams, Sr., makes his Grand Ole Opry debut
In the tragically short life of country legend Hank Williams,
Sr., there were many broken relationships, both personal and
professional, that resulted from his self-destructive behavior.
One such relationship was with the most important institution in
his chosen field: The Grand Ole Opry. Shortly before it cost him
his life, Hank's drinking cost him his membership in the Opry,
just three years after his triumphant debut. That debut, however,
remains one of the most famous in the history of the live
country-music performance program broadcast weekly on WSN
Nashville since 1925. Hank Williams took to the microphone for
his Grand Ole Opry debut on June 11, 1949, electrifying a live
audience at Ryman Auditorium that called Williams out for six
encores and had to be implored not to call him out for more in
order to allow the rest of the show to go on.
Hank Williams was only 25 years old when he was invited to appear
for the first time on the Grand Ole Opry. As a young man growing
up dirt poor in southern Alabama, he began supporting his family
at the age of seven by shining shoes and selling peanuts, but by
14 at least, he was already performing as a professional
musician. The life of a "professional musician" playing the
blood-bucket honky-tonks of the Deep South bore little
resemblance to the lifestyle that would later become available to
him, but it was there, in country music's backwater proving
grounds, that Hank Williams developed his heavily
blues-influenced style and began writing his own music. Williams
left music behind during WWII, but then he went to Nashville in
1946 hoping to sell some of his songs. Quickly signed to a
publishing contract by one of Nashville's most prominent music
publishers, Fred Rose, Williams soon had a recording contract
with MGM and his first hit record with "Move It On Over" (1947).
Williams' heavy drinking had already earned him a reputation in
the industry, however_a reputation that ruled out an invitation
to appear on The Grand Ole Opry. It was the Opry's biggest
competition, The Louisiana Hayride, that first exposed Williams
to a wide radio audience, but when his 1949 record "Lovesick
Blues" became a monumental popular hit, the powers that be in
Nashville relented, and Williams made his Opry debut. His
performance on this day in 1949, during which he performed six
encores of "Lovesick Blues" for a wildly enthusiastic live
audience, led to regular appearances over the next three years,
until the Opry fired Williams in July 1952 over his heavy
drinking. Two months later, Hank Williams died of alcohol-induced
heart failure at the age of 29.
73, K.O. n0kfq
Another old retired guy
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@centurytel.net
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