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Hank

Audiobook
Nonfiction: Biography / History
Unabridged   16.25 hour(s)
Publication date: 11/22/2016

Hank

The Short Life and Long Country Road of Hank Williams

Available from major retailers or BUY FROM AMAZON
Audio CD ISBN:9781681683300
Digital Download ISBN:9781681683317

Summary

A heartbreaking, unforgettable portrait of country music’s founding father and "Hillbilly King."

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Product Description

After he died in the backseat of a Cadillac at the age of twenty-nine, Hank Williams―a frail, flawed man who had become country music's first real star―instantly morphed into its first tragic martyr. Having hit the heights with simple songs of despair, depression, and tainted love, he would, with that outlaw swagger, become in death a template for the rock generation to follow. Six decades later, Mark Ribowsky now weaves together the first fully realized biography of Hank Williams in a generation. Examining his music while also re-creating days and nights choked in booze and desperation, Ribowsky traces the miraculous rise of this music legend―from the dirt roads of rural Alabama to the now-immortal stage of the Grand Ole Opry, and finally to a sad, lonely end on New Year's Day, 1953. The result is an original work that promises to uncover the real Hank beneath the myths that have long enshrouded his legacy.

Reviews/Praise

"The narration by Tom Perkins is comfortable, charming, and frank, inviting the listener to settle in and enjoy the roller-coaster ride." —Library Journal Audio Review

"A timely biography, though its subject died nearly 64 years ago. . . . Ribowsky has taken on a truly harrowing life." —New York Times

"A sturdy biography of the unsteady icon of outlaw country avant la lettre. . . . Ribowsky covers the details of Williams' untidy personal life without undue sensationalism . . . [a] decidedly warts-and-all portrait of a man more revered than listened to these days." —Kirkus Reviews

Author Bio

Mark Ribowsky is the author of Ain't Too Proud to Beg: The Troubled Lives and Enduring Soul of the Temptations, The Supremes: A Saga of Motown Dreams, Success, and Betrayal, and the New York Times Notable Book Don’t Look Back: Satchel Paige in the Shadows of Baseball, among other books. He lives in Florida.