Hank Williams and His Drifting Cowboys
Band · Active 1947–2009 · Nashville, Tennessee
Classic Country
The Drifting Cowboys were Hank Williams's road and recording band from his June 1949 Grand Ole Opry debut through his death in January 1953 — a four-piece honky-tonk lineup whose high-lonesome steel and double-stop fiddle defined the post-war country band template that dominated the genre for the next two decades.
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- Classic lineup assembled in spring 1949 for Hank's Opry debut: Bob McNett (lead guitar), Hillous Butrum (bass), Jerry Rivers (fiddle), and Don Helms (steel guitar); Sammy Pruett later replaced McNett on lead guitar.
- Hank's MGM sides from 1947 through 1949 were tracked with Nashville session players credited as "the Drifting Cowboys"; from January 10, 1950 the actual band — especially Helms and Rivers — played on most of Hank's MGM sessions at Castle Studio alongside Chet Atkins, Jack Shook, and Ernie Newton.
- Don Helms's E-13 steel guitar (capoed high for the signature high-lonesome cry) appears on more than 100 Hank Williams sides and on ten of his eleven number-one country hits.
- Hank disbanded the touring group around his 1951 back surgery and was largely unaccompanied through 1952; the band briefly backed Ray Price after Hank's death on January 1, 1953 before scattering to session work.
- Reunited in 1977 as "the Drifting Cowboys" with Helms, Rivers, McNett, and Butrum; recorded several albums into the 1980s including One More Time Around (Delta, 1983).
- Don Helms went on to become one of Nashville's premier session steel guitarists, recording with Patsy Cline, Lefty Frizzell, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, and the Louvin Brothers; inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1984.
- Jerry Rivers continued as a sideman for Ray Price, Faron Young, Marty Robbins, and Hank Williams Jr., later toured with Jett Williams, and authored the Hank Williams biography From Life to Legend.