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A captivating biography of one of America's greatest songwriters who died alone in the back of a Cadillac, aged only twenty-nine. Hank Williams is not just one of America's greatest songwriters but also one of the most enigmatic - a raw poet from the rolling pine woods of south Alabama whose anguished lyrics were celebrated from the clamorous roadhouses of the Deep South all the way to Carnegie Hall. It was a wonder that Hiram ('Hank') Williams ever made it to adulthood at all. Unschooled, virtually fatherless, an alcoholic by his early teens and unlucky in love, Hank was destined for a life in the sawmills and the railyards until he began writing about what he saw and felt. His songs ran the gamut - unrequited love, honky-tonking, loneliness - and they played as well in the fighting and dancing clubs spread across the American outback as on television's 'Your Hit Parade'. He was country, but he wasn't, dozens of his titles crossing over to the pop charts in a career that lasted only six years. He died as he had lived: drunk and drugged, alone in the back seat of a Cadillac convertible, an outcast being chauffered through the snow and ice to play a gig on New Year's Day of 1953, gone at the age of twenty-nine. Paul Hemphill, born and raised in Alabama, has written a fascinating interpretative biography of Hank Williams, with the kind of soul and understanding that other books about him have lacked. Whence the pain and despair? Why the booze and pills? Where did his genius come from? How did he know everything he wrote about? 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From Williams's dirt- poor beginnings as a sickly child to his emergence as a star of the Grand Ole Opry, \u003ci\u003eLovesick Blues\u003c\/i\u003e is the definitive biography of the man and his music.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49597252337937,"sku":"GOR011939612","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50345004400913,"sku":"CIN0143037714A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50431786516753,"sku":"CIN0143037714VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999443587345,"sku":"NIN9780143037712","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51821795803409,"sku":"CIN0143037714G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52932408705297,"sku":"GOR014659144","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0143037714.jpg?v=1751258677"},{"product_id":"ballad-of-little-river-book-mr-paul-hemphill-9780684856827","title":"The Ballad of Little River","description":"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA veteran journalist's exploration of a church-burning in south Alabama\u003cbr\u003ebecomes a richly rewarding evocation of the Deep South--its land, its people, \u003cbr\u003eand its sweat--popping summers.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMore than an anatomy of a church arson, \u003ci\u003eThe Ballad of Little River\u003c\/i\u003e is\u003cbr\u003ea poignant but hard-hitting biography of one of the poorest areas in the\u003cbr\u003eUnited States--where deer outnumber people. A cauldron of unresolved racial\u003cbr\u003eand familial conflict, of heat, boredom, gossip, and grudges, Little River, \u003cbr\u003eAlabama, gained notoriety in 1997 as the site of the U.S. government's\u003cbr\u003efirst conviction under a new hate-crimes law intended to stop a rash of\u003cbr\u003efires set at black churches around the country.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhen journalist Paul Hemphill, son of an Alabama\u003cbr\u003etruck driver and veteran writer on the blue-collar South, moved into the\u003cbr\u003earea, he discovered a world that time had virtually forgotten--an obscure, \u003cbr\u003eisolated community in the swampy woodlands far from the mainstream of American\u003cbr\u003elife, a forlorn cluster of poverty and ignorance and dead-end jobs. He\u003cbr\u003emet a stew of heroes and villains right out of fiction--Peanut Ferguson, \u003cbr\u003eDoll Boone, Hoss Mack, Joe Dees, Murray January, a Klansman named Brother\u003cbr\u003ePhil, and his stripper wife known as Wild Child--all swirling in a maelstrom\u003cbr\u003eof history and heat.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOriginally published in cloth by Free Press, \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Ballad of Little River\u003c\/i\u003e is Hemphill's gripping look at the southern\u003cbr\u003ebackwoods, a chilling cautionary tale filled with both kindness and cruelty, \u003cbr\u003etold in the steady voice of a master storyteller and one who knows the\u003cbr\u003ehuman heart.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50038237397265,"sku":"CIN0684856824G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51416105746705,"sku":"CIN0684856824VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0684856824.jpg?v=1751074672"},{"product_id":"tiger-walk-through-history-book-paul-hemphill-9780817315450","title":"A Tiger Walk Through History","description":"Tells the story of the progress of Auburn. This book records the many highs and occasional lows, and the heartbreak and jubilation each caused, noting the standouts great and small on the way. It contains 172 photographs, that capture the players and coaches in the Auburn football experience.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50098052137233,"sku":"CIN0817315454G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0817315454.jpg?v=1750849723"},{"product_id":"nashville-sound-book-paul-hemphill-9780820348575","title":"The Nashville Sound","description":"While on a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, journalist and novelist Paul Hemphill wrote of that pivotal moment in the late sixties when traditional defenders of the hillbilly roots of country music were confronted by the new influences and business realities of pop music. The demimonde of the traditional Nashville venues (Tootsie s Orchid Lounge, Robert s Western World, and the Ryman Auditorium) and first-wave artists (Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, and Lefty Frizzell) are shown coming into first contact, if not conflict, with a new wave of pop-influenced and business savvy country performers (Jeannie C. Harper Valley PTA Riley, Johnny Ryles, and Glen Campbell) and rock performers (Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, the Byrds, and the Grateful Dead) as they took the form well beyond Music City. Originally published in 1970, The Nashville Sound shows the resulting identity crisis as a fascinating, even poignant, moment in country music and entertainment history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50148228137233,"sku":"CIN0820348570G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51008340951313,"sku":"NIN9780820348575","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0820348570.jpg?v=1766139216"},{"product_id":"ballad-of-little-river-book-paul-hemphill-9780817311100","title":"The Ballad of Little River","description":"This work is a biography of one of the poorest areas in the USA - where deer outnumber people. 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From Williams's dirt- poor beginnings as a sickly child to his emergence as a star of the Grand Ole Opry, \u003ci\u003eLovesick Blues\u003c\/i\u003e is the definitive biography of the man and his music.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50355749978385,"sku":"CIN0670034142A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50357990883601,"sku":"CIN0670034142G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51694372552977,"sku":"CIN0670034142VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52752663970065,"sku":"GOR002857659","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53196308775185,"sku":"GOR014802410","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0670034142.jpg?v=1751168038"},{"product_id":"heart-of-the-game-book-paul-hemphill-9780684811727","title":"The Heart of the Game","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50359276077329,"sku":"CIN0684811723A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51461156798737,"sku":"CIN0684811723VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52879114338577,"sku":"CIN0684811723G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0684811723.jpg?v=1750700201"},{"product_id":"leaving-birmingham-book-paul-hemphill-9780817310226","title":"Leaving Birmingham","description":"P\u0026gt;Birmingham's history of racial violence and bigotry is the centerpiece of this intense and affecting memoir about family, society, and politics in a city still haunted by its notorious past.     In 1963, Birmingham was the scene of some of the worst racial violence of the civil rights era. Police commissioner \"Bull\" Connor loosed dogs and turned fire hoses on black demonstrators; four young girls at Sunday school were killed when a bomb exploded in a black church; and Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote his famous letter from the Birmingham jail, defending his activism to fellow ministers.  Birmingham native Paul Hemphill, disillusioned with his hometown, had left home to pursue a journalistic career, so he witnessed these historic events with the rest of the world through newspaper and television reports. \"That grim old steel town,\" he writes, \"was the most blatantly segregated city of its size in the United States of America, and most of us regarded it with the same morbid  fascination that causes us to slow down and gawk at a bloody wreck on the highway.\"  Thirty years later, Hemphill returned to Birmingham to explore the depths of change that had taken place in the decades since the violence. In this powerful memoir, he interweaves his own autobiography with the history of the city and the stories of two very different Birmingham residents: a wealthy white matron and the pastor of the city's largest black church. As he struggles to come to terms with his own conflicting feelings toward his father's attitudes, Hemphill finds ironic justice in the integration of his childhood neighborhood and a visit with the black family who moved into his family's former home.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50362412794129,"sku":"CIN0817310223G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0817310223.jpg?v=1751201774"},{"product_id":"lost-in-the-lights-book-paul-hemphill-9780817313166","title":"Lost in the Lights","description":"This collection of 15 articles is arranged along the timeline of an athlete's life. 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