Hank Williams : snapshots from the lost highway

From Publishers Weekly When Hank Williams died in the backseat of a car at age 29, he left behind grieving fans, friends and family, as well as eight guns, eight pairs of boots, 11 hats and a saddle. Hank Williams: Snapshots from the Lost Highway by Colin Escott and Kira Florita gathers together just about every last piece of paper having anything do to with country music's greatest and most tragic star (hence the postmortem inventory). Much of the material is new: included in this volume are the handwritten lyrics to 30 songs never recorded or published, private family correspondence and some 150 previously unpublished photographs, including Hank's first baby photo. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Although he never made it to 30 and died nearly a half-century ago, singer/songwriter Hank Williams continues to exert tremendous influence on all spheres of popular music. The country crooner also continues to invite biographical treatment. In 1998, music historian Escott (Hank Williams: A Biography) and Florita, former marketer of the Hank Williams catalog for Mercury Records Nashville, produced the Grammy-winning, ten-CD set The Complete Hank Williams. While working on that project, they amassed a huge number of photographs, documents, and published and unpublished song lyrics. That iconography forms the basis of Hank Williams: Snapshots from the Lost Highway, an appealing coffee-table book that is being cross-promoted with the tribute album, Timeless. Composed of captions by the authors and excerpts of interviews with Williams and his family and friends, the text is somewhat sparse but to the point and well written. Rick Bragg also contributes an elegant foreword. Koon's Hank Williams, So Lonesome was first published as Hank Williams: A Bio-Bibliography (Greenwood, 1993). This second take features expanded biographical coverage and important discussions of Williams's songs. Also significant are the author's attempts to separate the facts of Williams's life and work from the mythology of the musician and his thoughtful assessment of sources. In eliminating the reference-book qualities of the earlier Greenwood volume, Koons has made a significant contribution to Williams literature for fans and scholars. As a pair, these books nearly perfectly complement each other, but, unfortunately, neither contains a discography. In addition, the Escott and Florita volume lacks a bibliography (perfectly acceptable for a work of this kind), and the Koons book contains only a scaled-back one. Despite these shortcomings, both books avoid sensationalizing their complex subject and are highly recommended for public libraries and academic libraries with a popular culture focus. James E. Perone, Mount Union Coll., Alliance, OH Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Autobiography "He was just twenty-nine years old and had been a recording artist for less than six years when he died on New Year's Day in 1953. Yet the songs Hank Williams left behind - including "I Saw the Light," "Cold Cold Heart," "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Jambalaya," "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" - transformed him into a legend whose influence is felt as strongly today as ever. But for all that his music reveals, we know remarkably little of the man himself. His formal interviews barely filled a page, and even those who claimed him as a friend admit they barely knew him.". "Now Colin Escott and Kira Florita present a trove of more than 300 photographs, letters, and other artifacts that shine a new light on Hank as an artist, family man, and performer while they chronicle his rise from poverty to fame and his plunge into self-destruction. Featuring the collections of Marty Stuart, Hank Williams, Jr., and Jett Williams, this remarkable album of images - most never before published - includes shots ranging from the only known baby photo of Hank to funeral pictures of Hank's wife, Billie Jean, saying farewell over his open casket. In between are private childhood photos, rare portraits of Hank with his earliest bands, snapshots from his early stardom in Montgomery and Shreveport, pictures of him performing at the height of his fame, and the only known images of Hank in the recording studio.". "The authors have also assembled revelatory letters and documents, including those Hank wrote to his mother from a rodeo in Texas and those his publisher Fred Rose wrote in the hope of keeping Hank from drink; newly unsealed court depositions by Hank's sister Irene and his two wives; and poignant personal accounts of their father by Hank Williams Jr. and Jett Williams. Here too is the poster for the concert Hank was scheduled to give January 2, not seen since 1953, and even his final lyric, which fell out of his hand onto the floor of the car where he died." "Equally extraordinary are the previously unseen handwritten lyrics - many hurriedly scrawled, scratched out, the rewritten, on lined notepaper or hotel stationery - to nearly thirty songs never recorded by Hank nor published until now.". "Enhanced by compelling first-person accounts from Hank and those who knew him, complemented by a foreword from Rick Bragg and a preface by Marty Stuart, this beautifully designed tribute is a revelation. Open it and know Hank Williams as you have never known him before."--BOOK JACKET.

- Long considered the last word on Hank Williams, this biography has remained continuously in print since its first publication in 1994.- This new edition has been completely updated and includes many previously unpublished photographs, as well as a complete catalog detailing all the songs Hank Williams ever wrote, even those he never recorded.- Colin Escott is codirector and cowriter of the forth-coming two-hour PBS/BBC television documentary on Hank Williams, set to broadcast in spring 2004, and coauthor of "Hank Williams: Snapshots from the Lost Highway.- HANK WILLIAMS was the third-prize winner of the prestigious Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award.

Publishers Weekly

Escott traces the triumphant and tragic career of the legendary country star, who died at 29 from a drug overdose. (July)

His recording career lasted only six years, his spell at the top of his profession barely four, and he was only twenty-nine when a life of excess caught up with him. But in that brief span, Hank Williams created one of the greatest bodies of work in American music. Songs like "Your Cheatin' Heart" and "Hey Good Lookin'" and "Jambalaya" sold millions, crossed over from the country to the pop charts, and became the model for all country music that followed. But by the time The drifting cowboy's dream "Roy Acuff, then God!" Sweet Audrey from Pike Songs for home folks The year of the lion The hayride A feeling called the blues "Tonight, live from Nashville, Tennessee" "Hurried southern trips" A good year for the roses Folk and western music to sell The Haddy-Cole bounce "A good time all the time" Billie Jean "I'm so tired of it all" Midnight Wuthering depths A biography of quintessential country singer and songwriter Hank Williams tells the inside story of country music's greatest legend--the man who achieved national recognition for hits like "Hey Good Lookin'" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"--his turbulent personal life, his definitive musical career, and his tragic death at age twenty-nine. Reprint. 20,000 first printing. A biography of quintessential country singer and songwriter Hank Williams tells the inside story of country music's greatest legend-- the man who achieved national recognition for hits like "Hey Good Lookin'" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"--his turbulent personal life, his definitive musical caree Based on years of research and interviews, this is a biography of Hank Williams, the father of modern country music. The book chronicles his career and a short life (he died at 29) in which he drugged and drank his way through two marriages and off the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. Hank Williams moulded American music into a new art form, and created descendants that range from Garth Brooks to Beck. This book displays letters, interviews, and hand-written lyrics to 29 songs. It includes testimonials from Hank's family, friends, and the musicians he inspired. The house no longer stands and the small settlement of Mount Olive West, Alabama, barely exists, but it was there, in a double-pen log house, that Hank Williams was born. THE Mount of Olives, which overlooks Jerusalem from the east, will, according to biblical lore, be the gathering place when the dead shall rise upon the Messiah's return.