# Hank Williams



## JM (May 20, 2010)

[video=youtube;zPTyic_WPxI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPTyic_WPxI[/video]

Was Hank Williams a professing Christian? It seems half of his song were Gospel or touched on faith.


----------



## Willem van Oranje (May 20, 2010)

JM said:


> Was Hank Williams a professing Christian? It seems half of his song were Gospel or touched on faith.



You can't beat old Hank. There will never be another musician like him.

Was he a Christian? Well, he did write the song, "I Saw the Light". Hard to see his life as a "credible profession" but only God knows for sure.

Should add that I do not know his church status. If he was a communicant member of a true church of Jesus Christ, then that means he was a professing Christian, and I wouldn't want to second guess the judgment of Hank's elders if that were the case. But don't know on that one.


----------



## Christusregnat (May 20, 2010)

Hank's basic themes are "living, drinking and praying." If you follow his material, he deals with each of these in-depth. He was a drunk, and quite possibly also a habitual fornicator/adulterer, if his songs may be believed as genuinely expressing his own sentiments. The other half, as you say, touch on the Christian faith. Sadly, this is where antinomianism gets us. But, I still love many of those old Hank Williams songs!


----------



## au5t1n (May 20, 2010)

This is normal in country music. A nominal profession of Christian faith is expected of the artists -- or at least was.


----------



## JM (May 20, 2010)

I didn't think Hank did country, to me, it sounds more mountain blues and gospel. American folk.


----------



## au5t1n (May 20, 2010)

American folk _is_ country, especially when you're wearing a cowboy hat and singing about the gospel and drinkin'.


----------



## JM (May 20, 2010)

Nah, country is pop music with roots in folk. The two are different forms of music.


----------



## au5t1n (May 20, 2010)

JM said:


> Nah, country is pop music with roots in folk. The two are different forms of music.



I think country is a broad category with many subcategories, not all of which is the 'pop country' heard on the radio these days. Even bluegrass is considered a form of country. But I'm not going argue with you because Wikipedia (the ultimate source of appeal) just calls him a country musician and doesn't qualify it!  Hank Williams - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


----------



## Steve Curtis (May 20, 2010)

I would go further and say that country music is defined as being what Hank Williams did. One doesn't try to square Hank with a preconceived category - he is the gold standard! Whatever calls itself country but differs from Hank is but a variation on the theme.


----------



## JM (May 20, 2010)

austinww said:


> I think country is a broad category with many subcategories...



Ok, that makes sense.


----------



## Wayne (May 20, 2010)

[video=youtube;cSZfUnCK5qk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSZfUnCK5qk[/video]


----------



## Mushroom (May 20, 2010)

In my very early years I was a Hank Williams afficianado. At the age of 4-5 I could sing just about every song he recorded. My parents thought I was nuts. They were right. Rock-n Roll came along and all that went out the window. Hank was gone down that Long Lost Highway.


----------



## 21st Century Calvinist (May 20, 2010)

A few years ago I saw a play about the life of Hank Williams performed in a small theater in Atlanta. It seemed to me at the time that real tragedy of his life was the gospel he sang about he just couldn't quite understand or receive. His addictions seemed more powerful or were more appealing than the gospel he had heard and the one which people he knew urged him to believe.


----------



## Christusregnat (May 20, 2010)

Hank is making a come-back, however. His popularity increases whenever people look into the history of country or rock and roll. Also, his grandson is reviving some of his old tunes, albeit he is a crass rogue himself.


----------



## LawrenceU (May 21, 2010)

JM said:


> Nah, country is pop music with roots in folk. The two are different forms of music.



Actually you have it flipped. What is called country music today is pop/rock with some country influence. Folks like Hank took folk, mountain, and gospel and created country music.

BTW, in the pop/country music world of today style is sometimes referred to in two broad categories: BG and AG. Anybody care to guess what that means?


----------



## SolaScriptura (May 21, 2010)

Before Garth and After Garth?


----------



## Backwoods Presbyterian (May 21, 2010)

That is what I was thinking.


----------



## LawrenceU (May 21, 2010)

SolaScriptura said:


> Before Garth and After Garth?


 
That's it. 

I have a cousin who is a top flight instrumentalist in Nashville. I was up visiting him once while he was laying down tracks in a studio for an album. The producer asked him to play the riff they were working a bit more 'BG'. I had to ask. Since then I've found that he is not the only one to use it.

Garth Brooks had an incredible affect on Country Music, much to its detriment, in my opinion. There is no doubt about his talent and entertainment skills. But, the genre has never been the same.


----------



## BJClark (May 21, 2010)

Hank Sr. had another name he recorded under..Luke the Drifter, and those songs were considered more mini sermons..

He was raised going to a Baptist Church, which is where he got his start singing in the Choir..

Be Careful Of Stones That You Throw--is one of his songs as Luke the Drifter..

A tongue can accuse and carry bad news
The seeds of distrust it will sow
But unless you've made no mistakes in your life
Be careful of stones that you throw

A neighbor was passing my garden
One time, she stopped and I knew right away
That it was gossip not flowers she had on her mind
And this is what I heard my neighbor say

"That bad girl down the street should be run from our midst
She drinks and she talks quite a lot
She knows not to speak to me or my child"
My neighbor then smiled and I thought

A tongue can accuse and carry bad news
The seeds of distrust it will sow
But unless you've made no mistakes in your life
Be careful of stones that you throw

A car speeded by and the screaming of brakes
A sound that made my blood chill
For my neighbor's one child had been pulled from the path
And saved by a girl lying still

The child was unhurt and my neighbor cried out
"Oh who was that brave girl so sweet?"
I covered the crushed broken body and sad
The bad girl who lived down the street

A tongue can accuse and carry bad news
The seeds of distrust it will sow
But unless you've made no mistakes in your life
Be careful of stones that you throw


Here is another one..To many Parties and To Many Pals..

YouTube - LUKE THE DRIFTER - Too Many Parties and Too Many Pals!


----------



## Christusregnat (May 21, 2010)

When a guy from Minnesota pretends to be country, you know that can't be good. We're from North California and South Alabam, but Minnesota?


----------



## Willem van Oranje (May 21, 2010)

JM said:


> Nah, country is pop music with roots in folk. The two are different forms of music.


 
Hank's music was the pop of his day, with roots in folk and blues. Reference the catchy tunes and introduction of the electric guitar. That's why he was able to sell so many records and win an audience that the traditional forms could not.

---------- Post added at 11:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:09 AM ----------




Christusregnat said:


> When a guy from Minnesota pretends to be country, you know that can't be good. We're from North California and South Alabam, but Minnesota?


 
Are you kidding? Minnesota is mostly country-territory I would think. It's so very rural mid-west. I wish these southerners would stop trying to claim everything American for themselves...


----------



## JM (May 21, 2010)

I guess I took the biography of Hank I read too seriously, he quoted Hank referring to his music as folk, which of course adds to the confusion. When I google definitions I found four different definitions. 

I feel like Hank when he said, "I don't know what you mean by country music. (I just make music the way I know how.)"


----------

