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Showing posts with label Luke the Drifter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Luke the Drifter. Show all posts

My Loving Parents, Hank, Luke the Drifter and New Years Day


Some of you may know, of all things, that I was nominated for a Grammy this year along with Co-producer Lance Ledbetter of Dust-to-Digital for the project "Take Me to the Water." This is a personal post, and one which I hope to avoid boasting or gloating.

I don't remember when New Years Day began to mean the day Hank Williams died to me, but I do remember writing a poem about it way back in High School. You see, I was born the same year Hank died on New Years day. He was riding in the back seat of a car being driven to a gig. I believe he was wearing his boots, or at least I like to think he was, and I've always imagined them crossed and propped up against the car door as he rested on his back and got some sleep. I think he was alive at midnight, but was gone with the light of the new year. The next year, Elvis made his first recordings. So as a baby I was able to share a life with both events, something I am proud of but which came about through no choice of my own. Pure dumb luck. How lucky am I to be able to say "the soundtrack of my life" began with Hank and Elvis?


I always favored Hank's "Luke the Drifter" songs best, the pseudonym he used for his gospel and religious material. I've said many times over the last 6 months, while talking about "Take Me to the Water," that artists perform harder when they are singing of their faith. I first realized this because of Hank's Luke the Drifter way back as a boy. He may have been the first Honky Tonker, but it was his Sunday morning material which moved me the most. I also believe it was an outlet he felt necessary to save his own soul.


Today as I helped move both of my parents to safer, more assisted living, I took some time to think about Hank, as I always do, but this year it was a deeper, more grateful appreciation. It was how fortunate I have been to share New Years with his soul...because my beautiful pair of loving parents somehow timed my arrival to be able to say it...and that on this very day I am able to still feel his presence even as I accept the difficult and taxing fact that my folks are waning profoundly this holiday.
That it came in the same year as a nomination I never thought I would be able to receive has made this the most memorable New Years day ever.