Jazz, blues and nostalgia, by Sjaak Roodenburg.
Hank Williams, ‘the Hillbilly Shakespeare’
Williams died on new year’s eve 1952, on his way to a next concert, on the backseat of his Cadillac, destroyed by speed and alcohol. He was only 29 years old, but already had an impressive body of work to his name: typically a melancholic repertoire, about broken hearts, a son who calls another man ‘daddy,’ or about someone who has been thrown out the door and seeks solace in the doghouse.
Williams learned his first guitar chords from Tee-Tot, a black street singer and teetotaler, and had the talent to transform his miserable life story into songs like ‘Cold, cold heart’ and ‘I am so lonesome I could cry’.
His own renditions were often heartbreaking, and artists like Tony Bennett and Jo Stafford recognized the greatness of the songs by the man known as the ‘Hillbilly Shakespeare’.
