The legendary performer has won the country music Entertainer of the Year award several times and reached beyond the country world when he became the singing voice of Monday Night Football. Hank Williams originally did There's a Tear in My Beer, Moanin' the Blues, Rovin' Cowboy, Bill Cheatham and other songs. Williams: Every song is different. Lv 7. When I put out my first album, it was released as an actual 78 vinyl with 45s sent out as singles. BC: “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” is one of your huge hits. I started writing new material and was defining my own image. Hank Williams Sr. wrote more than 200 songs and you can find a list of his songs at www.lyricsfreak.com/h/hank+Williams/ Williams: I don’t do co-writing. Are you pleased with the way the album came out? while hank wrote most of the songs he sang I don't know the exact figure but I have 72 hank sr. songs in my library. Williams Jr. also performs a couple of songs in tribute to his father, including Waylon Jennings' "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way." Though Parton originally performed the song herself in 1974, it didn't become a worldwide hit until Whitney Houston lead the vocals in The Bodyguard in 1992. Katherine Williams-Dunning was 27. Knowing that those songs went gold and platinum means that the fans are still buying my music and certain songs still resonate with the newer generation of fans. In 2008, Williams was honored as a BMI Icon for his “unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers.”. Why do you think you’ve had such a strong staying power when many don’t have that sort of longevity? Williams: It was a song for the times that has resonated with the fans and still to this day is a fan favorite. So you have to go with the flow, or you will not stay relevant. As she was approaching, she saw the light at the airport. The most famous song Dolly Parton has written is, which may come as a surprise, is, "I Will Always Love You." I get to perform when I want, for whom I want and where I want. His father was a railroad engineer who was also a victim of shell shock after a year of fighting in France in 1918 during World War I and spent many years in veterans hospitals. I have taken him out metal detecting to find Civil War relics, so when we asked him to be on the record, he easily agreed. He won $15 at the Empire Theater in Montgomery by performing what is probably the first song he wrote, "WPA Blues," a blues critique of President Franklin Roosevelt's Depression-era work program. During his lifetime, Williams placed 30 songs on Billboard's Top C&W Records, while he had seven number one hits. So it varies. It was the way I grew up. The family eventually moved to Montgomery. BC: How did “A Country Boy Can Survive” develop? More than 60. Bill Conger is a freelance writer for various publications including Bluegrass Unlimited, ParentLife, Homecoming, and Singing News and is currently writing a biography on The Osborne Brothers with Bobby Osborne. I got a shotgun and a rifle and a four wheel drive and a country boy can … 1 decade ago. 'd in Denver and All My … 0 0. cyanne2ak. Hank Williams, Jr. wrote Loving Instructor, O.D. In the 1970s, he created his own musical identity, combining country with Southern rock and blues. Favourite answer. Fact Check: A Grammy Award-winning recording artist and the son of late Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Hank Williams, Williams is known for such songs as “A Country Boy Can Survive” and “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight.”The Country Music Association announced on Aug. 12 that he would join … In any case, A TRIBUTE TO MY FATHER collects several of Hank Williams Jr.'s interesting cover versions of his Dad's hits, including a Charlie Daniels-ish take on "Kaw-Liga," and a convincingly bluesy "Move it On Over.". He added to his precious metals collection again at the Country Music Festival in Nashville this June, when he was awarded with a gold plaque for more than 500,000 sales of the single, “Family Tradition,” and a platinum plaque for more than a million sales of “A Country Boy Can Survive.” Williams remains an in-demand touring artist, consistently selling out large venues. He wrote for several … Hank Williams was born in Mount Olive, Alabama in 1923 and also lived in Greenville and Georgiana, Alabama as a kid during the Great Depression. BC:  You’ve had a slew of top songs that you’ve written. Williams: Well, you know the business has changed so much and as my daughter, Holly, told me “nobody is buying albums anymore,” so I guess when I got the plaques for selling a gold single and platinum single, it reminded me of the days when we would release singles and the record company would sell 45’s. I live back in the woods you see, my woman,and the kids and the dogs and me. 2. BC:  Which comes first—melodies or lyrics? Williams: Music goes in cycles, some years pop is a big thing, other years country is a big thing. Some while I am sitting in a deer stand, others while I am watching TV or just driving in the car. BC:   How have you seen the music business change over the last several years? Scott allowed me to make the record that I wanted, and it debuted at #2 on the Billboard chart, so of course, I think the record came out perfectly! Then out of the blue the head of ABC called Merle Kilgore, my late manager, and asked if they could use that song for the opening of Monday Night Football, and a one year deal turned into a 22-year thing. Hank Williams covered There's a Tear in My Beer, Moanin' the Blues, Rovin' Cowboy, Joe Clark and other songs. This record was an easy one to make. Williams: Well, that was a decade after the Montana/Idaho fall that nearly killed me. In 1969, when the young Hank Williams, Jr. was still making a living impersonating his father—Audrey Mae Sheppard, Hank, Sr.’s first wife, even had matching suits made—he’d raided the Acuff-Rose archives and knocked out an album of his own (lousy) collaborations; a few years later, Mickey Newbury, an Acuff-Rose artist, … I am a lucky man. Earlier his year, he released his 37th studio album, It’s About Time. The name Hank Williams Jr. and the word legend pretty much go hand in hand. A very nice country concept album, although the only surprising thing about it is that took until 1992 for somebody to come up with the concept. Scott is the man behind Taylor Swift, Florida Georgia Line, Justin Moore and so many others, so you can only imagine how thrilled it made me to think I was going to be on a label that was happening. Williams: Julian (Raymond), the producer helped find some of the songs that I didn’t write. BC:  Do you ever enjoy co-writing, or do you prefer to write by yourself? How many songs did hank williams sr. write? Later that day, I became the fifth. The preacher man says its the end of time and the Mississippi River she's a going dry. What’s the story behind that song? Williams: Hell yes, I am. Many a country star consider him a hero, which is probably why he is referenced in so many songs! What does it mean to you to know that you’re still going strong in the music business after all this time? On Saturday night, Katherine Williams-Dunning, a daughter of country singer Hank Williams Jr., ... who died in 1953 at age 29 after writing a long string of hit songs. One never knows when a good idea will just come to you. It was the way of life. Hank Williams wrote Alone and Forsaken, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry and Jambalaya (On the … I was looking for a new image and new song since I was always compared to daddy, and no matter where I performed people wanted me to sing daddy’s songs. Hank Williams, Jr. covered Born to Boogie, The Conversation, There's a Tear in My Beer, Down South Jukin' and other songs. When my manager, Ken Levitan, told me that Scott Borchetta wanted to sign me to Nash Icon, it really made me get into that creative space that I hadn’t been in for a long while. 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