Not far away in Georgiana Alabama, another child was born in 1923 whose life was
destined to link with Lum’s in the creation of the most enduring legend country music
has ever known. Hank had won a talent contest at the Montgomery Empire Theater singing an
original song entitled "WPA Blues" in December of 1937. There was no stopping
his music career from that moment. He worked local clubs and did a show on WSFA, a
Montgomery radio station.
Lum had to drop out of school to help his mother after his father died. He worked with
the CCC, Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Program to help stimulate the economy by
allowing boys and young men to work on public buildings and parks for a small salary plus
room and board. When Lum returned from the CCC camp, he would hitchhike into town to hear
the local bands play. Since he had no money to buy a ticket, he filched eggs from his
mother’s chicken house and sold them to local groceries for the admission price. He
had heard Hank on the radio and began to hang around the station. They first met in 1939.
The friendship remained throughout Hank’s life. The two men worked together as
musicians and at various shipyards when the money from the beloved music wasn’t
enough to make ends meet.
In 1944 Lum and his big bass fiddle joined Hank’s band, The Drifting Cowboys. Lum
tells of the first time he played music with Hank, "We had got to be friends working
together in the shipyard. One night I went where he was playing. I had bought a bass and
was learning to play it. I was also friends with the guy who was playing bass that night
and he asked me to sit in while he went to the bathroom. Hank and Audrey were dancing
while I played the set. When the music ended, Hank asked me ‘You want a job playing
with the band?’ I told him, ‘Hank, I don’t know how to play too good.’
He said, ‘You want to learn? I’ll pay you $20 a week and room and
board.’"
Until 1948, Lum drove around the South with Hank and the band. Sometimes there was only
one other member, the trumpet player. Occasionally Hank’s family joined them.
Lycrecia, Hank’s stepdaughter, who was about five or six then, recalled those times
in a letter to Lum. " You were like a big brother to me. You were the one that played
games with me, taught me to tell time when I was traveling from one town to another. You
made me laugh; you were my best friend. When I think back about how I used to sit on your
lap when we were traveling to the shows because there wasn’t anywhere for me to sit
with the big bass fiddle running down the middle of the car, I have to laugh. We were so
crowded in that car! Then when it would get late and I got sleepy, Mom would put me in
your fiddle case backstage."
As Hank’s popularity and his income increased, he acquired a tiny trailer to pull
around to shows. Audrey sometimes joined them then and they were treated to "home
cooked" meals. It also gave them a place to lie down and rest between the shows.
During this time, Lillie, Hank’s mother often traveled with them and managed a
"junior band" which would play in the same area as Hank’s band. One of the
members of this band, on hearing Lum’s strong southern accent, nicknamed him
"Lum". The name was taken from a popular radio show comedy duet called "Lum
and Abner." The name stuck,
Since Hank couldn’t smoke when he was singing he liked Lum to stand next to him to
play. Lum would light up a cigarette, take a draw, and start playing, then Hank would take
the cigarette and finish it. Lum commented, "I was lighting a half a pack of cigs a
night and hardly getting a smoke. I told Hank to leave my cigs alone, but as usual, he did
the same thing and I kicked his hand. He went ahead and smoked it and grinned. However, I
don’t recall him smoking another on of my cigs."
Being young, attractive and somewhat wild, Hank was a big attraction to the ladies. At
one show in a small honky tonk on the edge of Montgomery, Hank and Lum were playing to
just two couples. Hank spoke to the woman who worked the bar and she in turn spoke to one
of the women at the table. Soon, the two men at the table went to the rest room. Lum
recalls Hank telling him "let's go" and they hurried out to the car. The two
women were lying down on the car seats. At the first red light, Lum jumped out and told
Hank, "You can get shot if you want to but I’m going home." He never heard
any more about the incident.
Lum often played peacemaker in the Williams’ stormy marriage. After a squabble,
Hank would have Lum go talk to Audrey. He has fond memories of visiting Audrey and playing
with young Hank, Jr. The two men also collaborated on writing songs. Lum wrote the chorus
and title of "Take this Message to My Mother" and Hank wrote the verses.
Lum was also the unwitting inspiration for Hank’s "I Saw the Light"
Hank, Audrey and the band, six people altogether, were crammed into a 1942 Chevy. As you
can imagine, it was hard for any of them to rest comfortably. Lum raised up to change
positions. He looked out the window and as he lay back down, he stated "We’re
getting close to Montgomery. I saw the light." Referring to a beacon light near town
that was always a landmark for the band as they returned home from shows.
Hank mumbled that it was a good title for a song and by the next day when the
band gathered for their show on WSFA, he was picking out the tune to "I saw the
Light". Many versions about the origin of this song have been advanced over the years
but Lum feels that this is the truest.
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| He donned an outrageous country bumpkin outfit, wore a wig, painted freckles on
his face and used every joke he could beg, borrow or steal. Lum riding his bass fiddle
with The Drifting Cowboys, Photo courtesy Lum York |
It was around this time that Hank suggested to Lum he might be good as a
comedian. Lum stated, "That’s one big difference between country music now and
then. Those days, every band carried a comedian. Today they don’t do that. But young
people still like to hear jokes and stuff."
After the first night, Hank told Lum he didn’t think the comedy would work but Lum
decided to make it work. He put on an outrageous country bumpkin outfit, wore a wig,
painted freckles on his face and used every joke he could beg borrow or steal. It was an
unqualified hit, especially with the children in the audience. I asked him to tell some of
his favorite jokes. He said’ "One night everyone was going to a party. Said they
had a real good time drinking mixed drinks. I went home and mixed one to see how I liked
it. I mixed up some. Milk of Magnesia with vodka. I call it a Phillips screwdriver."
When Hank went to the Louisiana Hayride in 1948, Lum was the only player from
Montgomery to go with him. "One thing about Hank, he never closed any of his shows
without singing a hymn. There was always complete reverence with him and the band members
at this time. Another thing, he never turned his back on the audience. He always stood
facing or to the side."
When Hank went to the Opry in 1949, they required him to use the house band on stage.
Lum remained behind and played with the staff band on the Hayride then for Bill Monroe for
a while. He began playing with Lefty Frizzell and was on the road when he learned of
Hank’s death. When asked about that time Lum replied, "I was playing with Lefty
(Frizzell) then and we were playing San Antonio, Texas. We were off for a few days and I
had gone to Baton Rouge but had to return to San Antonio the next day. Mrs. Williams
called my mother trying to find me but they didn’t know where I was. She wanted me to
be a pall bearer but I had to go back to work, I couldn’t let Lefty down and we had
to play in Texas."
Regarding the ‘New Country,’ Lum had this to say. "I think if Hank was
still alive today, he would be doing the same thing that he was doing back then. He loved
his country music and the country style. I know he would not like this so called modern
country music period."
Lum played with George Morgan, Goldie Hill, Marty Robbins and other Nashville greats
for several years. He returned to Baton Rouge and Married Juanita Kelly in 1954. As a
married man, he needed a bit more stability than the music world offered so he went to
work for the Louisiana School Board. Of course, he always played his music on the
weekends.
Over the years, Lum played with Tennessee Ernie Ford, Hank Thompson, Kitty Wells,
Johnny and Jack, Webb Pierce, Slim Whitman, Jimmy Davis and countless other country music
greats. At heart, he still remains what he was originally, a plain Southern farm boy.
Time changes many things. But after fifty years, two things are unchanged; the legend
of Hank Williams and Lum York’s preservation of his friend’s memory and music.
Although his health no longer allows Lum to carry and play his beloved Bass Fiddle, you
will still find him playing an old Hank tune on the spoons and sending out his own two
tapes, My Life and Times with Hank Williams and Memories are Forever. He is
retired from the school board and lives quietly with his wife. Their biggest pleasure in
life is playing with their grandbaby, Kirby Camille Lastrope. But he still loves music.
Regarding his future plans, "I play spoons with a local band, Richard Barksdale and
the Country Style. We just made a new CD. I’m looking forward to seeing how it
does." (You can order his tapes at 15387 Springwood Ave., Baton Rouge,
LA 70817-1552)
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| Lum picks at his bass one more time at the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery
Photo courtesy Lum York |
He is an avid backer of the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery where he has his
own display showing his bass fiddle and comedian outfit. He still makes public appearances
and says the greatest thrill of recent years was reuniting with Hank Junior and meeting
Hank lll. He has also played with Hank's daughter Jett Williams at the 2001 Fourth of July
celebration in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He told of a recent appearance he made in Baton
Rouge. "I preformed a few weeks ago with Marty Stewart. Played the spoons and pulled
a few jokes. There are some of the new musicians I like. Marty, Neil McCoy and Vince Gill,
Vince can sing good Bluegrass. Oh, and Ricky Scaggs. I really like Bluegrass and it is
doing good right now. My favorite song is still ‘Wedding Bells.’
When asked about his biggest regret in life, Lum states, "on October 2, 1952 Hank
Williams made his last appearance in Baton Rouge, La. I played on the show with him and
then later that night he asked me to rejoin his band and play comedian. I told him I would
call him back. It was a number at a hotel. I called him back and told him I was going to
stay with Lefty. I always regretted that."
Hank had moved to Nashville to be on the Grand Ole Opry in 1949. Lum remained in
Shreveport. On Jan 1, 1953, the news rocked the country music world, Hank Williams was
dead at the age of twenty-nine.
This article appeared in England's top Country Music Magazine, Country Music People the
Jan 2003 issue
Sadly, Lum York passed away in Baton Rouge, LA on 8-15-2004 at the age of 85. My heart
goes out to Nita and the rest of his family. He was a wonderful person and a great
musician and comedian.
Just for fun, I couldn't resist posting a few more of my favorite Lum and
Hank photos.
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| Lum poses with Kawliga at the Hank Williams Museum in
Montgomery Photo by Kathleen Walls |
Lum's display at the Hank Williams Museum Photo by Kathleen Walls |
Montgomery's monument to the man often called the "Hillbilly
Shakespear" country music's brighest star. He lived the songs he wrote. Photo by
Kathleen Walls |
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| Hank's death car at the Hank Williams Museum Photo by Kathleen Walls |
Lum, Bill Monroe and Nita York. Lum played with the biggest and the best stars
in Nashville. Photo courtesy Lum York |
