REFLECTIVE MOMENTS

Music of Hank Williams Sr. coming to city stage

For Moose Jaw Express Hank Williams Sr. had sung his songs and passed away in 1953, long before my personal preference in music was established.

But with the radio as a source of contact between our home and the world, and a means of hearing music before television was in every home in our rural community, I had a song in my mind about some kind of soup and crawfish pie and file’ gumbo. I had heard it on the radio and even as a pre-schooler who could only play Jingle Bells on the Zylephone, the medoly stuck even if the words made no sense.

It wasn’t until many years later that the song, Jambalaya, was identified for me with the late Hank Williams Sr., he of such other hits as Hey Good Lookin’ and Cold Cold Heart — songs whose lyrics were frequently warbled by girlfriends thinking we might be hired as a backup trio for

a local star.

The brilliance of the music written and sung by Williams Sr. dawned on me much later and it is no surprise that his life and music are still drawing avid fans to concert stages across North America.

One of the most talented and knowledgeable Hank Williams Sr. tribute artists is Jason Petty of Nashville who for the past 22 years has brought Hank Williams alive on those many stages. Petty will be in Moose Jaw Wednesday, Oct. 24 at the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre with his Hank Williams — The Lonesome Tour. This is one of seven or more shows he has written and produced on the history of country music.

While working at Opryland, he performed a 30 second impression of Hank Williams’ Your’ Cheatin’ Heart, a performance heard by the producer of the off Broadway musical, Lost Highway. A year later he was offered the opportunity to play Hank Williams in the musical — without auditioning. “Life’s funny that way,” he said in a telephone interview, noting life often leads one down a different path than the one envisioned. Billy Walker, a long-time member of the Grand Ole Opry, heard Petty play Hank Williams and told him he should be doing it for a living. And he has done just that.

He says Hank Williams Sr. paid for his house, his car and will pay for his children’s education. “I am grateful to Hank Williams.”

Petty believes the music of Hank Williams has endured because it is simple music that is believable and tells stories of the everyday person. Williams could identify with the problems of ordinary people because he had the same problems and some of the same demons.

While getting to know some friends and colleagues of Williams, he learned that Hank Williams could feel alone in a crowd of friends. “There was a hole in his soul that he couldn’t fill. And stardom made it worse.”

His music was then and is still now, singable, even for a young Petty whose father got him singing Your Cheatin’ Heart. Petty’s first concerts in Canada were at the Walters’ Family Dinner Theatre in Ontario. about 10 years ago. That led to an association with Rocklands Talent and some short tours in Ontario. “They took off like gangbusters,” he said, proving that “Hank’s music has staying power.” On this tour he will be featured in 13 concerts starting in Winnipeg on Oct. 21 and concluding Nov. 8 in Courtenay, B.C. When he sings Jambalaya in Moose Jaw, there will be at least one audience member singing along — and wondering where to get crawfish pie.

Joyce Walter can be reached at ronjoy@ sasktel.net