As with so much in life where my great hero Billy Connolly goes I will follow which means to Hank Williams in Alabama.
Billy oft tells the story of how he first got into the banjo, his great musical love.
And the start point of his legendary entertainment career.
The Barras street market in Glasgow might seem an unlikely place to discover a Country legend.
But then many of the best people (Billy and Bandanaman) grew up in these streets.
And it was on one such stall that Billy’s dad bought Hank’s I’m So Lonely I Could Cry which prompted Billy to buy a banjo.
Hank’s for the memories
Billy, whose television travelogues are among the best anywhere, takes us to Hank’s gravestone in his Tracks Across America.
And texts his children and gets a photograph to tell him he’s there.
This year is a very special year for Hankophiles.
Hiram ‘Hank’ Williams was born on September 17 in Mount Olive, Alabama.
And Alabama naturally makes a big deal of their favourite son with a Hank Williams Trail.
It kicks off with a visit to his childhood home preserved as a museum in Georgiana, where he learned to play guitar from Black street musician Rufus “Tee-Tot” Payne. T
Then drive an hour north to Montgomery, where Hank moved in his teens, and pick up lunch as he did at Chris’s Hot Dogs.
Alabamaversary
Visit Montgomery’s Hank Williams Museum to see his stage costumes, guitars, and the 1952 blue Cadillac in which he died, aged just 29.
You can pay your respects at his grave, like Billy did in homage to Hank Williams in Alabama.
In nearby Oakwood Cemetery, marked by a marble cowboy hat.
Of course, in a state where music is in the very air, there is always an anniversary.
Muscle memory
And April 23, 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of Rick Hall’s FAME studios in Muscle Shoals.
The studios have attracted artists from Alabamian Wilson Pickett, who recorded “Mustang Sally”, Aretha Franklin and Etta James to Alicia Keys.
A new behind-the-scenes tour takes visitors into Hall’s personal office and showcases his collection of instruments.
Of course this being the Deep South then music is all around you so why not make an odyssey of it in neighbouring states.
And take in Tennessee and the best that Nashville, Memphis and Dollywood have to offer.
And Mississippi and its Blues trail and its Grammy Museum.
