Saturday, September 17, 2005
Saturday Reading Room is Open
(Or at least a book review by Richard Hyatt, ledger-enquirer.com)
Hank Williams' 'Lovesick Blues'
Paul Hemphill writes about Southerners with grease under their nails, whiskey on their breath and a chip on their shoulder -- the same blue collar folks who thought Hank Williams was singing about them.
Williams wrote lyrics and Hemphill writes books. His latest is "Lovesick Blues" and it tells Williams' story as it has never been told before.
Like its subject, this book is simple and raw, tracing the life of a country singer who lived out his lyrics, drinking himself to death at 29.
"It was like he was reporting on his life as a journalist," Hemphill says, describing those mournful lyrics.
Williams would have been 82 today. He died New Year's Day 1953. Yet today birthday parties for him are being thrown in Canada, Australia and his native Alabama.
Williams' music lives on, and Hemphill brings to life the man who made that music.
"It's one good old boy writing about another good old boy," said Sterling Lord, the author's agent and the person who suggested this book.
The result is magic. Listen as Hemphill describes his feelings when he discovered Williams' tortured voice as a boy in Birmingham.
"Hank Williams had come to us from out of nowhere -- sprouting like a wild dandelion in the dank forests of south Alabama, some primordial beast who had been let loose on the land, a specimen heretofore undiscovered -- and by this summer of '49 nobody seemed to know exactly what to make of him."
Hemphill understands the enigma that was Hank and explains why this uneducated son of a an Alabama logger remains important -- though he couldn't read a note of music.
"He had no musical tricks up his sleeve, wouldn't know a simile or a metaphor unless somebody spelled it out for him, hardly knew a flat note from a sharp... Onstage and in the studio, he was doing what came naturally: desperately telling the story of his life, which kept getting worse. If he had a genius, it was for simplicity."
Hemphill understands because he's been there, suffering years of alcoholism before finding recovery. He's well acquainted with the despair that alcoholics use as a chaser.
"Hank and me both knew the bottom of a bottle," Hemphill says. "We were sensitive and bruised easily too. Eventually, like most alcoholics, we turned it on ourselves."
In "Lovesick Blues," Hemphill is at his best.
"If you were king of the world and could pick out the best author to write a biography of Hank, it would be Paul," Lord said.
On that, Old Hank would agree.
**********
(p.s. Twenty or so years ago, out of Canada came a great film called "Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave". Try to find it if you can. bf) ¶ 9/17/2005 09:01:00 AM
(Or at least a book review by Richard Hyatt, ledger-enquirer.com)
Hank Williams' 'Lovesick Blues'
Paul Hemphill writes about Southerners with grease under their nails, whiskey on their breath and a chip on their shoulder -- the same blue collar folks who thought Hank Williams was singing about them.
Williams wrote lyrics and Hemphill writes books. His latest is "Lovesick Blues" and it tells Williams' story as it has never been told before.
Like its subject, this book is simple and raw, tracing the life of a country singer who lived out his lyrics, drinking himself to death at 29.
"It was like he was reporting on his life as a journalist," Hemphill says, describing those mournful lyrics.
Williams would have been 82 today. He died New Year's Day 1953. Yet today birthday parties for him are being thrown in Canada, Australia and his native Alabama.
Williams' music lives on, and Hemphill brings to life the man who made that music.
"It's one good old boy writing about another good old boy," said Sterling Lord, the author's agent and the person who suggested this book.
The result is magic. Listen as Hemphill describes his feelings when he discovered Williams' tortured voice as a boy in Birmingham.
"Hank Williams had come to us from out of nowhere -- sprouting like a wild dandelion in the dank forests of south Alabama, some primordial beast who had been let loose on the land, a specimen heretofore undiscovered -- and by this summer of '49 nobody seemed to know exactly what to make of him."
Hemphill understands the enigma that was Hank and explains why this uneducated son of a an Alabama logger remains important -- though he couldn't read a note of music.
"He had no musical tricks up his sleeve, wouldn't know a simile or a metaphor unless somebody spelled it out for him, hardly knew a flat note from a sharp... Onstage and in the studio, he was doing what came naturally: desperately telling the story of his life, which kept getting worse. If he had a genius, it was for simplicity."
Hemphill understands because he's been there, suffering years of alcoholism before finding recovery. He's well acquainted with the despair that alcoholics use as a chaser.
"Hank and me both knew the bottom of a bottle," Hemphill says. "We were sensitive and bruised easily too. Eventually, like most alcoholics, we turned it on ourselves."
In "Lovesick Blues," Hemphill is at his best.
"If you were king of the world and could pick out the best author to write a biography of Hank, it would be Paul," Lord said.
On that, Old Hank would agree.
**********
(p.s. Twenty or so years ago, out of Canada came a great film called "Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave". Try to find it if you can. bf) ¶ 9/17/2005 09:01:00 AM
