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Drifting Cowboys
The Drifting Cowboys were the backing group for American country legend and singer-songwriter Hank Williams. The band went through several lineups during Williams' career. The original lineup was formed in 1937, changing musicians from show to show until Williams signed with Sterling Records. The lineup was further modified in the following years, with the most famous version of the group formed in 1949 for Williams' appearance on the ''Grand Ole Opry''. Although the Drifting Cowboys were credited on Williams' records, until 1950, Williams was backed by session musicians on recordings, with the label crediting the Cowboys. In 1951, Williams disbanded the group. After his death, the band was used for a short time by Ray Price. Former members later toured under the name of the band. History Hank Williams formed the original Drifting Cowboys band between 1937 and 1938 in Montgomery, Alabama. The name was derived from Williams' love of Western films, with him and the band wearing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WSM (AM)
WSM (650 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station, located in Nashville, Tennessee. It broadcasts a country music format (with classic country and Americana (music), Americana leanings, the latter of which is branded as "Route 650") and is known as the home of the ''Grand Ole Opry'', the world's longest running radio program. The station is owned by Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. After nearly 40 years broadcasting from a studio within the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, WSM moved to a showcase studio inside the former home of Roy Acuff, just outside the Grand Ole Opry House, in July 2024. Nicknamed "The Air Castle of the South", the station broadcasts with 50,000 watts around the clock from a facility in Brentwood, Tennessee. It has one of the largest daytime coverage areas in the country, providing at least grade B coverage as far southeast as Chattanooga, as far northwest as Evansville, Indiana, as far west as Jackson, Tennessee and as far south as Huntsville, Ala ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Film
The Western is a film genre defined by the American Film Institute as films which are "set in the American West that mbodythe spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier." Generally set in the American frontier between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, the genre also includes many examples of stories set in locations outside the frontier – including Northern Mexico, the Northwestern United States, Alaska, and Western Canada – as well as stories that take place before 1849 and after 1890. Western films comprise part of the larger Western genre, which encompasses literature, music, television, and plastic arts. Western films derive from the Wild West shows that began in the 1870s. Originally referred to as "Wild West dramas", the shortened term "Western" came to describe the genre. Although other Western films were made earlier, '' The Great Train Robbery'' (1903) is often considered to mark the beginning of the gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin Larkin (writer)
Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British music writer. He founded and was the editor-in-chief of '' The Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book '' All Time Top 1000 Albums'', and edited the ''Guinness Who's Who of Jazz'', the ''Guinness Who's Who of Blues'', and the ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Heavy Rock''. He has over 650,000 copies in print. Early life Larkin was born in Dagenham, Essex. He spent much of his early childhood attending the travelling fair where his father, who worked by day as a plumber for the council, moonlighted on the waltzers to make ends meet. It was in the fairground, against a background of Little Richard on the wind-up 78 rpm turntables, that Larkin acquired his passion for the world of popular music. Larkin studied at the South East Essex County Technical High School and at the London College of Printing, where he took typography and graphic design. Art and publishing Larkin's company Scorpi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guinness Publishing
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listing world records both of human achievements and the extremes of the natural world. Hugh Beaver, Sir Hugh Beaver created the concept, and twin brothers Norris McWhirter, Norris and Ross McWhirter co-founded the book in London in August 1955. The first edition topped the bestseller list in the United Kingdom by Christmas 1955. The following year the book was launched internationally, and as of the 2025 edition, it is now in its 70th year of publication, published in 100 countries and 40 languages, and maintains over 53,000 records in its database. The international Franchising, franchise has extended beyond print to include television series and museums. The popularity of the franchise has resulted in ''Guinness World Records'' becoming the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Encyclopedia Of Popular Music
''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' is an encyclopedia created in 1989 by Colin Larkin. It is the "modern man's" equivalent of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music'', which Larkin describes in less than flattering terms.''The Times'', ''The Knowledge'', Christmas edition, 22 December 2007 – 4 January 2008. It is published by the Oxford University Press and was described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". History of the encyclopedia Larkin believed that rock music and popular music were at least as significant historically as classical music, and as such, should be given definitive treatment and properly documented. ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' is the result. In 1989, Larkin sold his half of the publishing company Scorpion Books to finance his ambition to publish an encyclopedia of popular music. Aided by a team of initially 70 contributors, he set about compiling the data in a pre-internet age, "relying instead on information ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Rivers
Jerry Rivers (August 25, 1928 – October 4, 1996) was an American fiddle player. Biography Jerry Rivers was born in Miami, Florida. He played fiddle with the Drifting Cowboys, a band who will be forever associated with their "frontman", the legendary Hank Williams. Raised in Nashville, in a house that would later serve as an office for Atlantic Records, Jerry Rivers took up the fiddle as a teenager and was, by the mid-1940s, playing it semi- professionally whilst working during the day as a salesman for an electronic components company. He turned professional, briefly toured with the Short Brothers and then found himself back in Nashville working with Big Jeff Bess, husband of Hattie Louise "Tootsie" Bess, owner of the famous Tootsie's Orchid Lounge on Music City's Lower Broadway. It was whilst working with Bess that Rivers was first approached by Williams. Although Hank had performed with groups from the mid-1930s on, it was only following his successful early appearances on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hillous Butrum
Hillous Buel "Bew" Butrum (April 21, 1928 – April 27, 2002) was an American country music guitar player and a record and video producer best known as being a member of Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys. Hillous Butrum was born in Lafayette, Tennessee. Butrum found his way to Nashville and landed a job at WSM Radio. He eventually wound up a staff musician on the Grand Ole Opry, at age 16. From there, he played bass for Hank Williams' band "The Drifting Cowboys." He would play with the Drifting Cowboys from 1949 until 1950. After the passing of Williams, Butrum joined Hank Snow's band, the Rainbow Ranch Boys, and later played on many Marty Robbins recording sessions. He'd eventually start a music publishing company with Robbins. He established "Butrum Enterprises Publishing Company" and owned Look Records. He produced many early country music documentaries including "'' Music City USA''". Butrum would tour again, from 1977 to 1984, with the reformed Drifting Cowboys. Late ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louisiana Hayride
''Louisiana Hayride'' is a radio and later television country music show that was broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana; during its heyday from 1948 to 1960, it helped to launch the careers of some of the greatest names in American Country music, country and Western (genre), western music. Created by KWKH station manager Henry Clay, the show is notable as a performance venue for a number of 1950s country musicians, as well as a nascent Elvis Presley. Hayride history Beginnings The creators of the show took the name from the 1941 book with that title by Harnett Kane, Harnett Thomas Kane. First broadcast on April 3, 1948, from the Municipal Auditorium (Shreveport), Municipal Auditorium in downtown Shreveport, Horace Logan was the original producer and emcee.Shreveport Louisiana Hayride Company, LLC, Hayride History', retrieved 16 February 2012 The musical cast for the inaugural broadcast included the Bailes Brothers, Johnnie and Jac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert "Lum" York
William Herbert "Lum" York (November 16, 1918 – August 15, 2004) was a country musician best known as the bass player in the Hank Williams backing band The Drifting Cowboys. Biography York was a native of Elmore, Alabama. From 1944 until 1949, he was a member of Hank Williams's backing band The Drifting Cowboys as its double bass player. He began playing with Lefty Frizzell's band in 1952 and later played with musicians including Marty Robbins and George Morgan (singer). During the 1960s and 1970s, he played at the Old South Jamboree. In 1986, he played at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. After a heart attack forced him to stop playing the double bass, York began playing the spoons from 1998 onwards, playing alongside Hank Williams Jr., Hank Williams III and Jett Williams. York died of heart disease on August 15, 2004, in Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Pennington
Joseph Lephmon Pennington (January 15, 1928 – July 1, 2020), also known as Joe Penny, was an American country music singer and musician born in Plant City, Florida. Joe Pennington was the guitarist for Dub Adams and the K-Bar Ranch Hands from late 1945 until early 1947, playing dance halls across West Texas. He was the former lead guitarist for Hank Williams' backing band, the Drifting Cowboys. After leaving the Drifting Cowboys in 1949, Pennington went on to perform with Lefty Frizzell and record several rockabilly singles on the Federal Records label in the mid-1950s as Joe Penny. Pennington is inducted in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame The original Rockabilly Hall of Fame was an organization and website launched on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relating to the artists and personalities involved in rockabilly. Headquartered in Nashville .... Pennington died in 2020 at age 92. Discography * 1958 - "Bip A Little, Bop A Lot" b/w "M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Helms
Donald Hugh Helms (February 28, 1927 – August 11, 2008) was an American musician who was the steel guitar player of Hank Williams's Drifting Cowboys group. He was a member of the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame (1984). Biography Helms was a featured musician on a vast number of Hank Williams recordings and provided the high, piercing signature steel guitar sound on more than 100 of Hank's songs and on 10 of his 11 number-one country hits. Bill Lloyd, the curator of stringed instruments at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said of Helms: "After the great tunes and Hank's mournful voice, the next thing you think about in those songs is the steel guitar. It is the quintessential honky-tonk steel sound — tuneful, aggressive, full of attitude." Lloyd also credits Helms's sound as a major influence in shifting the sound of country music away from the hillbilly string-band sound popular in the 1930s and toward the more modern electric style that became prominent in the 1940s. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cowboy Boots
Cowboy boots are a specific style of riding boot, historically worn by cowboys. They have a high heel that is traditionally made of stacked leather, rounded to pointed toe, high shaft, and, traditionally, no lacing. Cowboy boots are normally made from cowhide leather, which may be decoratively hand-tooled, but are also sometimes made from "exotic" skins like alligator, snake, ostrich, lizard, eel, elephant, stingray, elk, buffalo, and so on. There are two basic styles of cowboy boots, western (or classic), and roper. The classic style is distinguished by a tall boot shaft, going to at least mid-calf, with an angled "cowboy" heel, usually over one inch high. A slightly lower, still angled, "walking" heel is also common. The toe of western boots was originally rounded or squared in shape. Some claim that the narrow pointed-toe design appeared in the early 1940s, although it can be seen as early as 1914 (see photo of Lottie Briscoe at right). The "roper" style is a newer d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
