Hank Williams

Hank Williams (1923-1953) is the foundation of modern country music. Born in Georgiana, Alabama, he learned guitar from a street musician named Rufus Payne and developed a style rooted in blues, gospel, and mountain music. His songs — Your Cheatin' Heart, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, Cold Cold Heart, Lovesick Blues, Hey Good Lookin' — are among the most recorded in American music history. Williams played a Martin D-28 acoustic guitar and performed with his band the Drifting Cowboys. His voice carried a grief and longing that were completely unaffected — he had lived what he sang about, and listeners knew it. He died on New Year's Day 1953 at 29 in the back seat of a Cadillac en route to a show. Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and virtually every country artist who followed him cite Williams as foundational.