Hank Williams' Birthday
It is hard to believe — perhaps because he has been dead for twice as long as he was alive, perhaps because as one of the towering geniuses of American popular culture it seems difficult to imagine him being in any way contemporaneous to those of us who live in a world where those he influenced have already inspired subsequent generations of their own — but Hiram King Williams would have turned 90 years old today. I sometimes still shake my head at the idea that the same person wrote “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” “Move It On Over” and “Jambalaya,” and those are just three of his best-known songs. His catalog contains pretty much every human emotion, in hummable, no-frills form. Please don’t get him confused with the guy who used to sing the Monday Night Football song.