Hank Williams Jr.

Good morning or good evening depending on where bloggers are reading from! This week I’m back talking about a great legend, Hank Williams Jr., also known as Bocephus. He has very recently became a great role model of mine, for the simple fact he speaks his mind and really does not care what others think or have to say. His song “Are You Ready for Some Football” has just been pulled for a statement he had made regarding the government as his punishment. Personally the “punishment” is a little ridiculous but it doesn’t seem to phase him.

                In 1949 on May 26^th Randall Hank Williams, who was also was nicknamed “Bocephus” by his late father, was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. Unfortunately at the age of 3, his father Hiriam “Hank” Williams Sr. had passed away. When Jr. had turned 8 years old he appeared on stage as Hank Williams Jr. and played his father’s songs. At age 11 he debuted on the Grand Ol’ Opry and by 14 he had made his first hit record. Talk about starting early! During his teenage years he learned to play piano from Jerry Lee Lewis, he had appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, and was performing for 20,000+ people.

                During 1969, Bocephus and Johnny Cash teamed up at Detroit’s Cobo Hall for the biggest country show to date. In 1970, Jr. signed the largest recording contract in the history of MGM Records. Finally he broke free and gained his own music identity instead of shadowing his father. During the early 1970’s he had made his own southern rock side, which can be heard in his 1975 album Hank Williams Jr and Friends. The same year, Jr. had escaped death from falling off a mountain in Montana and had to have numerous surgeries to keep him alive.

                He had won the CMA’s entertainer trophy in 1987 and in 1988. 1989 he won his first Grammy for the duet with his late father, “There’s a Tear in My Beer,” and given his father had passed they had borrowed his vocals from a vinyl record.

Luke Bryan

           

Hello fellow readers! I am back this week talking about the ever so gorgeous, Luke Bryan. Over the past few months, I have listened to his music a lot and I think he’s a great artist. I love his music, and at this very moment I am in love with his new song “I Don’t Want This Night To End.” Go take a listen while reading J. I heard it on my way to class one morning and have not stopped listening to it! I don’t want to say it describes me because it doesn’t, but it really made me think of some good times I’ve had with some great people. Now just like last week, I can’t promise I know very much about the singer, so we’ll learn together. Let get to it!

                He was born with the given name Thomas Luther Bryan, from Leesburg, Georgia on July 17, 1976. Leesburg is a very small town from what I’ve been told. I have only made it to Savannah a few years ago.  Luke liked the outdoors and played sports, while helping out his father with his peanut and fertilizer business. His parents seemed supportive of his music, they had bought him his own Alvarez guitar at age 14, and by 15 his father would take him to a nearby club called Skinner’s, where he’d play guitar and sing with the best of the locals.

By the time Bryan was 16 he led in his own band playing at Skinner’s and other community events, a major "thank you" to a couple of local songwriters that invited him to their writing sessions at the nearby church in town. He’d moved to Nashville after he’d received major support from the people who heard him play. This was a huge step in his life and on the day of the move, his older brother Chris who was one of his best friends, and biggest supporters, was killed in a car accident.

                After the accident he was completely dedicated to music. He found comfort and escape in writing his songs. Bryan had enrolled himself into Georgia Southern University, and his band would perform every weekend on campus or at nearby parties and clubs. Everyone had encouraged him to move to Tennessee but he refused. After he graduated he went back to working with his father in his agriculture business. After about a year of working with his dad, he had been forced to quit and move to Nashville. Within two months of moving, he was signed a publishing deal with a company by Roger Murrah.

                Luke Bryan received the title Academy of Country Music’s top new artist and top new solo vocalist in 2009. He received the USA Weekend breakthrough video of the year award in 2010 for “Do I.”