Browse Items (55 total)

The_Huntsville_Mirror_Sat__Jan_28__1956_.jpg
Newspaper article by J. B. "Jay" Sims on the retirement of John T. "Fess" Whatley. One of Whatley's early students, Sims was an early member of the Bama State Collegians; a bandleader, musician, and emcee; an educator; and a longtime social and…

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The_Birmingham_News_Sat__Dec_23__1950_.jpg
Newspaper photo and caption: "Negro debutantes of 1950 presented" at Birmingham Municipal Auditorium: "Fess Whatley's Orchestra furnished music."Birmingham News, December 23, 1950.

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DLH Big Bill Lister 7-15-01 Transcript.pdf
Interview with Big Bill Lister (1923-2009), recorded by Darwin Lee Hill, July 15, 2001. Texas-born Big Bill Lister was a singer, songwriter, guitarist, Capitol recording artist, and close associate of Hank Williams, with whom he toured and…

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The_Montgomery_Advertiser_Mon__Sep_20__1954_ 2.jpeg
In September 1954, the city of Montgomery, Alabama, hosted a Hank Williams Memorial Day, celebrating what would have been the singer's thirty-first birthday. Williams had died on New Year's Day, 1953, and the world of country music was shaken by the…

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DLH Don Helms Transcript.pdf
Interview with Don Helms (1927-2008), recorded by Darwin Lee Hill, March 2, 2002. In 1943, at the age of seveneteen, steel guitarist Don Helms joined the band of an up-and-coming Hank Williams, performing dates across south Alabama as a member of…

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Hardrock Gunter With Fans 2.jpeg
Sidney Louie "Hardrock" Gunter (1925-2013) poses with fans at Pennsylvania's Santa Fe Ranch. The Birmingham, Alabama-born country musician got his start in the 1930s as a member of the Hoot Owl Ramblers and, then, Happy Wilson's Golden River Boys.…

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Hardrock Gunter With Family.jpeg
Sidney Louie "Hardrock" Gunter (1925-2013) poses with his wife and daughter.

The Birmingham, Alabama-born country musician got his start in the 1930s as a member of the Hoot Owl Ramblers and, then, Happy Wilson's Golden River Boys. His first two…

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Hardrock Gunter and Band.jpeg
Fan-made photo of Sidney Louie "Hardrock" Gunter (1925-2013) and his band, onstage at the Santa Fe Ranch. The Birmingham, Alabama-born country musician got his start in the 1930s as a member of the Hoot Owl Ramblers and, then, Happy Wilson's Golden…

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Hardrock Gunter .jpeg
Two fan-made photos of Sidney Louie "Hardrock" Gunter (1925-2013). The Birmingham, Alabama-born country musician got his start in the 1930s as a member of the Hoot Owl Ramblers and, then, Happy Wilson's Golden River Boys. His first two singles on the…

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DLH : Braxton Schuffert Transcript.pdf
Interview with Braxton Schuffert (1916–2013), recorded by Darwin Lee Hill, September 1, 2001.Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Braxton Gordon Schuffert – best known as one of Hank Williams’s earliest friends, mentors, and bandmates – was an…

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https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/e5e7b5d30e32cb9dfade7b61d90206e2.jpg
Original sheet music for Ras Johnson composition, "Old Sand Mountain," 1950s.

Courtesy George Johnson.

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https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/8b6606a55f6fc620a821aa88ea01e437.mp3
Interview with Slim Bryant, recorded by Darwin Lee Hill, May 24, 1996. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1908, songwriter, singer, and guitarist Thomas Hoyt “Slim” Bryant made his first recordings in 1928 as a member of the Harmony Boys string band. He…

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Happy Hal Burns on Tractor.jpeg
Birmingham radio personality Happy Hal Burns on his tractor, 1955.

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https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/d4159f77616f02dc233d6480e3fca549.jpg
Frank Adams, saxophone, backs a female impersonator at Birmingham’s 2728 Club, 1950s.

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https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/95bfdf70c0213282c27e0c7b3366e654.jpeg
Happy Hal Burns (Harold Frank Byrnes) was a popular, longtime Birmingham radio personality and a mentor to many of the city’s “hillbilly” and country acts, including Hank Penny, Sidney “Hardrock” Gunter, and Gordon Edwards “Country Boy Eddie” Burns…

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