Joseph Lephmon Pennington (January 15, 1928 – July 1, 2020Joe Pennington's obituary
/ref>), also known as Joe Penny, was an American musician, the former lead guitarist for Hank Williams' backing band, the

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 s ...

. After leaving the Drifting Cowboys in 1949, Pennington went on to perform with

Lefty Frizzell William Orville "Lefty" Frizzell (March 31, 1928 – July 19, 1975) was an American country music singer-songwriter and honky-tonk singer. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982. Frizzell released many songs that charted ...

and record several

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blu ...

singles on the

Federal Records Federal Records was an American record label founded in 1950 as a subsidiary of Syd Nathan's King Records and based in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was run by famed record producer Ralph Bass and was mainly devoted to Rhythm & Blues releases. The compa ...

label in the mid-1950s as "Joe Penny". Pennington is inducted in the

Rockabilly Hall of Fame The Rockabilly Hall of Fame is an organization and website launched on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relating to the artists and personalities involved in rockabilly. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennesse ...

. 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 biographyAllMusic biographyJoe Penny discography on RCSIs Joe Pennington The Last Drifting Cowboy?
1928 births 2020 deaths American country guitarists American male guitarists American rockabilly musicians Federal Records artists People from Plant City, Florida 20th-century American guitarists Country musicians from Florida 20th-century American male musicians Drifting Cowboys members {{US-guitarist-stub