Hank Williams lives on via The Lonesome Tour
It’s only fitting that Hank Williams is coming back to Peterborough just as the Pig’s Ear, the local tavern where the country singer famously drank his way out of a local concert at the Brock Arena, is about to close for good.
But, you say, the influential singer died in 1953 ... how’s this happening?
Well, he’s coming back in spirit, at least. Jason Petty, a Tennessee musician and actor who’s made a career out of looking and sounding like the country legend, is at Showplace April 4. In his Hank Williams show, The Lonesome Tour, Petty brings the star back to life with songs and stories from that lost, great era of classic country music.
Petty’s on the phone, calling from his Tennessee acreage. He’s never heard the Pig’s Ear story – and how would he, really – but laughs when he finds out he’s heading to a city with its own bit of Hank lore – Williams is said to have bailed out of a concert here in order to get loaded at the Piggy. “It sounds like him,” Petty says.
He’s at Showplace next Tuesday at 8 p.m.; tickets are available at www.showplace.org or at the box office for
Williams, born in 1923, shot to fame in the 1940s and early 50s before dying at age 29 in 1953 after a long battle with drugs and alcohol. He left a legacy: Timeless songs, a dashing presence and a reputation as a bigger-than-life wild man.
“He was the first big superstar of country music,” Petty says. “And he did it all so young. It didn’t take him long to become huge.”
Petty, who was born in 1969, didn’t set out to be a professional performer. He landed a job as part of Opryland U.S.A., a live revue in Nashville, and was told by his producer that he looked so much like Hank Williams he’d have to learn some of his songs.
“That was a life-changing discussion,” he says. So he picked up a greatest hits CD and took out his guitar, soon learning classics like Move It On over, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, Your Cheatin’ Heart, and, of course, Hey Good Lookin’.
That song is one of his earliest memories – a very young Petty used to love to ride with his grandfather on his tractor, working the land, while the older man sang that popular, catchy song to him.
“He loved all what I call the ‘Hanks’ – Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Hank Thompson ... That stuff really filtered into me,” he says.
His father, meanwhile, grew up loving singing cowboy movies, and passed that sense of tradition on to his son. “A lot of what I do is paying homage to my grandparents and my father, who loved this music,” Petty says.
Playing Williams has also meant Petty has met a lot of the musicians who played alongside him – something he treasures.
While the Peterborough show is a concert, Petty has also played Williams in Hank Williams: Lost Highway, a play that earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Variety and Rolling Stone.
NOTE: The Williams show is only part of what Petty does; he also tours the Classic Nashville Roadshow and is part of a touring tribute to Hank Williams and Patsy Cline, and there’s a Christmas show in there, too.