Ryan Cook’s Hank Williams tribute coming to King’s Theatre Oct. 20

HEAD: Ryan Cook’s Hank Williams tribute coming to King’s Theatre Oct. 20

Nova Scotian country music favourite Ryan Cook will bring Hank Williams and his band the Drifting Cowboys to life with a one-night show at King’s Theatre on Oct. 20.

Cook and his four bandmates will be in costume and in character. They will transport the audience to the world of Hank Williams, considered one of the most significant and influential American singer-songwriters of the 20th century, and one of the greatest country music legends of all time.

This two-act feature performance includes 22 classic Hank Williams songs. Cook and company re-animate the sounds of Don Helms’ haunting steel guitar, Jerry Rivers’ fiddle arrangements, and the yodelling of the lovesick boy from Georgiana, the Drifter himself: Hank Williams.

Cook began performing as Hank Williams in 2009 with several consecutive sold-out weeks of the Maynard Collins play “The Show He Never Gave” in Sackville, N.B.

Having performed at some of the same stages as Hank Williams, including the Ryman Auditorium, and Ernest Tubb Midnight Jam- boree in Nashville, Ryan has also studied Williams’ life through the biographical work of Colin Escott, Sneezy Waters, The Country Music Hall of Fame (TN), Hank Williams Boyhood Home & Museum (AL), and The Hank Williams Museum (Montgomery (AL).

“It’s going to be quite a show” says Theatre Manager Janet Larkman. “The combination of Ryan Cook, who is a great performer and much loved in these parts, and the music and persona of Hank Williams, will appeal to a wide cross-section of country music fans”.

For more information and tickets, call the King’s Theatre Box Office at 902-532-7704 or visit kingstheatre.ca.

SUBMITTED Ryan Cook will soon bring his musical tribute to Hank Williams to Kings Theatre.

SUBMITTED Nova Scotian musician Ryan Cook, originally from Yarmouth, has studied the sights and sounds necessary to essentially become Hank Williams on stage.