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Drifting Cowboys
The Drifting Cowboys were the backing group for American country legend and singer-songwriter Hank Williams. The band went through several lineups during Williams' career. The original lineup was formed in 1937, changing musicians from show to show until Williams signed with Sterling Records. The lineup was further modified in the following years, with the most famous version of the group formed in 1949 for Williams' appearance on the '' Grand Ole Opry''. Although the Drifting Cowboys were credited on Williams' records, until 1950, Williams was backed by session musicians on recordings, with the label crediting the Cowboys. In 1951, Williams disbanded the group. After his death, the band was used for a short time by Ray Price. Former members later toured under the name of the band. History Hank Williams formed the original Drifting Cowboys band between 1937 and 1938 in Montgomery, Alabama. The name was derived from Williams' love of Western films, with him and the band wearin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WSM (AM)
WSM (650 kHz) is a 50,000-watt clear channel AM radio station located in Nashville, Tennessee. It broadcasts a full-time country music format (with classic country and Americana leanings, the latter of which is branded as "Route 650") at 650 kHz and is known primarily as the home of the '' Grand Ole Opry'', the world's longest running radio program. The station's clear channel signal can reach much of North America and nearby countries, especially late at night. It is one of two clear-channel stations in North America, along with CFZM in Toronto, that still primarily broadcast music; as recently as 2020, the station was live and locally originated during the overnight hours, but the overnight host position was eliminated in February 2020. Nicknamed "The Air Castle of the South," it spawned two sister stations on newer mediums: WSM-FM, and television Channel 4 (originally WSM-TV, and now WSMV), both of which were later sold separately. WSM-FM is no longer affiliated with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 2020 census, Montgomery's population was 200,603. It is the second most populous city in Alabama, after Huntsville, and is the 119th most populous in the United States. The Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area's population in 2020 was 386,047; it is the fourth largest in the state and 142nd among United States metropolitan areas. The city was incorporated in 1819 as a merger of two towns situated along the Alabama River. It became the state capital in 1846, representing the shift of power to the south-central area of Alabama with the growth of cotton as a commodity crop of the Black Belt and the rise of Mobile as a mercantile port on the Gulf Coast. In February 1861, Montgomery was chosen the first capital of the Confederate States o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grady Martin
Thomas Grady Martin (January 17, 1929 – December 3, 2001) was an American session guitarist in country music and rockabilly. A member of The Nashville A-Team, he played guitar on hits such as Marty Robbins' " El Paso", Loretta Lynn's " Coal Miner's Daughter" and Sammi Smith's " Help Me Make It Through the Night". During a nearly 50-year career, Martin backed such names as Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Johnny Burnette, Don Woody and Arlo Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and Bing Crosby. He is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in March 2015. Biography Grady Martin was born in Chapel Hill, Tennessee, United States. He grew up on a farm with his oldest sister, Lois, his older brothers, June and Bill, and his parents, Claude and Bessey; and had a horse he named Trigger. His mother played the piano and encouraged his musical talent. At age 15, Martin was invited to perform regularly on WLAC-AM in Nashville, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Rivers
Jerry Rivers (August 25, 1928 – October 4, 1996) was an American fiddle player. Biography Jerry Rivers was born in Miami, Florida. He played fiddle with the Drifting Cowboys, a band who will be forever associated with their "frontman", the legendary Hank Williams. Raised in Nashville, in a house that would later serve as an office for Atlantic Records, Jerry Rivers took up the fiddle as a teenager and was, by the mid-1940s, playing it semi- professionally whilst working during the day as a salesman for an electronic components company. He turned professional, briefly toured with the Short Brothers and then found himself back in Nashville working with Big Jeff Bess, husband of Hattie Louise "Tootsie" Bess, owner of the famous Tootsie's Orchid Lounge on Music City's Lower Broadway. It was whilst working with Bess that Rivers was first approached by Williams. Although Hank had performed with groups from the mid-1930s on, it was only following his successful early appearances on t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hillous Butrum
Hillous Buel "Bew" Butrum (April 21, 1928 – April 27, 2002) was an American country music guitar player and a record and video producer best known as being a member of Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys. Hillous Butrum was born in Lafayette, Tennessee. Butrum found his way to Nashville and landed a job at WSM Radio. He eventually wound up a staff musician on the Grand Ole Opry, at age 16. From there, he played bass for Hank Williams' band "The Drifting Cowboys." He would play with the Drifting Cowboys from 1949 until 1950. After the passing of Williams, Butrum joined Hank Snow's band, the Rainbow Ranch Boys, and later played on many Marty Robbins recording sessions. He'd eventually start a music publishing company with Robbins. He established "Butrum Enterprises Publishing Company" and owned Look Records. He produced many early country music documentaries including "'' Music City USA''". Butrum would tour again, from 1977 to 1984, with the reformed Drifting Cowboys. La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louisiana Hayride
''Louisiana Hayride'' was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of the greatest names in American country and western music. Created by KWKH station manager Henry Clay, the show is notable as a performance venue for a number of 1950s country musicians, as well as a nascent Elvis Presley. Hayride history Beginnings The creators of the show took the name from the 1941 book with that title by Harnett Thomas Kane. First broadcast on April 3, 1948 from the Municipal Auditorium in downtown Shreveport, Horace Logan was the original producer and emcee.Shreveport Louisiana Hayride Company, LLC, Hayride History', retrieved 16 February 2012 The musical cast for the inaugural broadcast included: the Bailes Brothers, Johnnie and Jack, the Tennessee Mountain Boys with Kitty Wells, the Four Deacons, Curley Kinsey an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert "Lum" York
William Herbert "Lum" York (November 16, 1918 – August 15, 2004) was a musician best known as the bass player in Hank Williams Drifting Cowboys from 1944–1949. After leaving the Drifting Cowboys, York played bass in Lefty Frizzell's band until 1953. York continued to perform until weeks before his death and was a fan favorite at the Hank Williams festival in Georgiana, Alabama. In rural Alabama, the depression days of the 1930s and early 1940s were rough. Lum York remembers "I only had two pairs of overalls. My mother washed on Wednesdays so I had to wear them all week long." Lum was born on November 16, 1918 as William Herbert York in the tiny hamlet of Elmore, just about 15 miles north of Montgomery, Alabama. Farming is a hard life at best. This was one of the worst times. Poverty gripped the rural south with an iron fist. To eke out a meager living, crops demanded grueling service. Lum was a schoolboy before they moved to a house with electricity. But life was mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Pennington
Joseph Lephmon Pennington (January 15, 1928 – July 1, 2020), also known as Joe Penny, was an American musician, the former lead guitarist for Hank Williams' backing band, the Drifting Cowboys. After leaving the Drifting Cowboys in 1949, Pennington went on to perform with Lefty Frizzell and record several rockabilly singles on the Federal Records label in the mid-1950s as "Joe Penny". Pennington is inducted in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He was born in Plant City, Florida Plant City is an incorporated city in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States, approximately midway between Brandon and Lakeland along Interstate 4. The population was 39,764 at the 2020 census. Despite many thinking it was named for flora ..., United States. Discography * 1958 - "Bip A Little, Bop A Lot" b/w "Mercy, Mercy, Percy" (Federal 12322) References Rockabilly Hall of Fame biography [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Helms
Donald "Don" Hugh Helms (February 28, 1927 – August 11, 2008) was a steel guitarist best known as the steel guitar player of Hank Williams's Drifting Cowboys group. He was a member of the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame (1984). Biography Helms was a featured musician on over 100 Hank Williams recordings and provided the high, piercing signature steel guitar sound on more than 100 Hank Williams songs and on 10 of his 11 number-one country hits. Bill Lloyd, the curator of stringed instruments at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said of Helms: “After the great tunes and Hank’s mournful voice, the next thing you think about in those songs is the steel guitar. It is the quintessential honky-tonk steel sound — tuneful, aggressive, full of attitude.” Lloyd also credits Helms's sound as a major influence in shifting the sound of country music away from the hillbilly string-band sound popular in the 1930s and toward the more modern electric style that became prominent in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cowboy Boots
Cowboy boots are a specific style of riding boot, historically worn by cowboys. They have a high heel that is traditionally made of stacked leather, rounded to pointed toe, high shaft, and, traditionally, no lacing. Cowboy boots are normally made from cowhide leather, which may be decoratively hand tooled, but are also sometimes made from "exotic" skins like alligator, snake, ostrich, lizard, eel, elephant, stingray, elk, buffalo, and so on. There are two basic styles of cowboy boots, western (or classic), and roper. The classic style is distinguished by a tall boot shaft, going to at least mid-calf, with an angled "cowboy" heel, usually over one inch high. A slightly lower, still angled, "walking" heel is also common. The toe of western boots was originally rounded or squared in shape. The narrow pointed toe design appeared in the early 1940s. A newer design, the "roper" style, has a short boot shaft that stops above the ankle but before the middle of the calf, with a ve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cowboy Hat
The cowboy hat is a high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat best known as the defining piece of attire for the North American cowboy. Today it is worn by many people, and is particularly associated with ranch workers in the western and southern United States, western Canada and northern Mexico, with many country, regional Mexican and sertanejo music performers, and with participants in the North American rodeo circuit. It is recognized around the world as part of Old West apparel. The cowboy hat as known today has many antecedents to its design, including Mexican hats such as the sombrero, the various designs of wide-brimmed hat worn by farmers and stockmen in the eastern United States, as well as the designs used by the United States Cavalry. The first western model was the open-crowned " Boss of the Plains", and after that came the front-creased Carlsbad, destined to become "the" cowboy style.Foster-Harris, p. 106. The high-crowned, wide-brimmed, soft-felt western hats that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Film
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West" and depicted in Western media as a hostile, sparsely populated frontier in a state of near-total lawlessness patrolled by outlaws, sheriffs, and numerous other stock "gunslinger" characters. Western narratives often concern the gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes of justice, freedom, rugged individualism, Manifest Destiny, and the national history and identity of the United States. History The first films that belong to the Western genre are a series of short single reel silents made in 1894 by Edison Studios at their Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey. These featured veterans of ''Buffalo Bill's Wild West'' show exhibiting skills acquired by li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
