Hank Williams left a lasting musical legacy that continues to be appreciated by each new generation.  It is important to recognize the birthday of one of Alabama's favorite sons and greatest legends.  The birthday tribute each year in September is our celebration to Hank...to another year of Hank and to more memories made here at the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.  Celebrate Hank 101.

Celebrate Hank 101 was fantastic!  It started off at Oakwood Cemetery Annex,  the resting place of Hank and Audrey.  The annual wreath laying ceremony  began at 9am, on Saturday, the 14th of Sept. with music from Arnold Sheppard and his two very talented grandsons, Morgan and Wes Brown. Following the music, Jeff Petty welcomed everyone and called Troy Gagne from Michigan to come up and read his poem called Hank 101.  This poem can be read in a separate blog. 

Jeff  then turned the program over to Jay Dean from South Dakota to say a few words. 

"I think the first thing we have to do is say a great big heartfelt thank you to Jeff and Beth Petty for what they do to keep Hank's legacy alive. It's not an easy thing to do.  When you think about it, we are here today honoring somebody that has been gone for 71 years and would have been 101 years old.  We still gather every year to pay tribute to this man.  People ask me all the time, especially when I was younger like in my teens and 20's, I was always listening to Hank Williams and people would say how in the world did you get involved in the music of Hank Williams?  Well my grandparents on my dads side loved the traditional country and he had a stack of 78's, 45's and albums. He had all kinds of Hank Williams music, so as a 4 , 5 or 6 year old, I was down playing the turn table and listening to Hank's music.  His music grabbed my heart like nobody ever has and as I got older and I read on him and studied on Hank, I realized how personal those songs are to him, the stories in the songs, how personal they are. The pain, the heartache, the love, everything he felt is poured out into these songs.  Now we have to remember Hank was only 29.  I was a blithering idiot in my 20's, (Martha Howell said "We all were") and here's a guy out there becoming a super legend back in the late 40's and 50's in his 20's. It's an amazing story.  As I think about Hank Williams,  I played on my Country Legends Jukebox this week, I did a full two hours on Hank about a dozen or 14 songs, and on the way down from Aberdeen to Sioux Falls, to hop on our airplane the other day, we listened to Hank all the way down. I told my girlfriend Shirley, I said what's amazing about Hank's music is it sounds as fresh today as it did back then. You can just catch it and it just sounds fresh, it sounds like it could be out today and it's a whole lot better than what's out today, I'm sorry to say.

But, I just want to say what an honor it is, I told Beth and Jeff last year I've been in radio doing radio shows almost 40 years, and done Country Legends Jukebox for 7 1/2 years and being here in Montgomery to honor my hero Hank Williams is the greatest honor I've ever received in my radio career.  Last year when I was here for the 100th, I was almost in tears being out here and emceeing the event, hearing the music and the show today is going to be incredible. The opening act with the steel guitar show and the band and the singers, I saw the set list and I can't wait and finally after last year when we didn't hear my song, we're finally going to hear "Mansion on the Hill" today.  Anyway, I thank you guys for the honor of being here.  I look so forward to this and I'll say God Bless the memory of Hank Williams.  What this man did in 29 short years cannot be compared...the only thing I can compare it to as  far as the small career he had is maybe the Beatles.  They only had a few years and had tons of hits but there were 4 of them working at it.  There was one guy working on this.  With a couple of vices that were holding him back, major back pain, all the things he went through and he still gave us some of the most beautiful music this world has ever seen.  Thank you." 

As a tradition, the service concluded with everyone joining in to sing "I Saw the Light"

Music continued at the Hank Williams Museum with The Sheppard Family and Dalton McSwain.

Needless to say, the Celebrate Hank 101 show was a big hit.  It began at 3 pm at the Davis Theatre with a steel guitar show featuring noted players Jeremy Drawbaugh, Jake Penrod, Wyatt Aleman and Jesse Personeni.  Guest singers included Woodie and Becky Hill,  Mary Battiata, Larry Darnell, Jake Penrod and Wyatt Aleman.  The all-star band featured the steel players, Lanny Nichols on guitar, Woodie Hill-guitar, Kyle Richburg on bass,  Landon Smith on drums and when Wyatt wasn't steelin', he was fiddlin'.

Following a brief intermission, The Malpass Brothers, Chris and Taylor made the crowd laugh and clap with jokes and some of the best traditional country music that has ever been performed.  These boys are devoted to the music that Hank and his contemporaries played and they have a passionate group of fans, so they were the perfect choice to perform in honor of Hank's 101st birthday.