Raise a glass to Hank Williams

On Jan. 1, 1953, Alabama's Hank Williams was pronounced dead in Oak Hill, West Virginia. He was just 29 years old.

His music is distinctive and evocative. His lyrics could be poetic. His blend of white hillbilly, road-rolling honky-tonk and black blues is one of the great innovations of American music. 

Born in Butler County, Alabama he spent most of his childhood in Georgiana and Greenville, moving with his mother to Montgomery as a teenager.

He got his first guitar at 8. He was a fan of Jimmie Rodgers and learned guitar technique and vocal styling from black bluesman Rufus "Tee Tot" Payne of Greenville.