Hank Williams: The Lonesome Tour at the Texas Theatre

Description

The Heart of Texas Country Music Association is honoring the 100^th Birthday of Country Music Hall of Famer Hank Williams with two special concerts featuring the music of Williams performed by renowned Nashville entertainer Jason Petty.  “Hank Williams:  The Lonesome Tour” will be featured at the Texas Theater in Seguin, Texas, on Sunday, October 15, at 3:00 PM.  Tickets are now on sale at (830) 372-6168, ((830) 401-1971, or www.thetexas.org.
Jason Petty brings Hank Williams' music and story alive in his one-man show, Hank Williams:  The Lonesome Tour.  "This is the way Hank Williams music was meant to be heard."   Jason plays acoustic guitar and, within the intimate set, tells the story of one of Country Music's greatest legends with wit, wisdom, and reflective humor. All of the legendary songs are included such as "Jambalaya", "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Hey Good Lookin", "Move It On Over", "I Saw The Light" and many more. Your audience will feel as if they traveled back in time and met Hank Williams himself.
Petty has made a living impersonating and performing the songs of country music legend Hank Williams throughout his adult life, but it was a chance encounter with a different country music icon that made him realize, as never before, the significance of what he was doing.
“It was the second or third week of a show at the Ryman Auditorium, where Hank had performed,” Petty said. “I was down on the steps, a few feet from the audience, and there was a man sobbing in the front row.  It was George Jones. He came up to me after the show, still in tears, and said my performance was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. At that moment, it hit me, the impact of what I was doing. It sent my head spinning.”
Petty’s show at the Ryman was a full-blown theatrical depiction of Hank Williams’ life titled “Lost Highway.” Nowadays, he is performing a solo show called “Hank Williams: The Lonesome Tour,” which he will bring to the Valerie Theatre in Inverness on Saturday, May 7.
Petty, who grew up on a farm in Tennessee, has loved Hank Williams’ music since the age of 3, when his father first cajoled him to sing along with a recording of “Hey Good Lookin’.”
“As I got older, I started to become wiser as to who wrote the songs, who sang them, what they meant to music history,” Petty said. “I was into all genres of music, but because I was raised on a farm, listening to country and gospel, I realized that is the kind of music that people listened to, who barely got by. Hank sang about the same kinds of things that my people went through. It was not just some guy singing some other dude’s song. He wrote it because he lived it.”
Despite his physical resemblance to Williams, Petty does not consider himself an impersonator, but he understands why others might.
“I’m trying to capture the nuance of Hank’s vocal style, his movements, his facial expressions,” Petty said. “I try to emulate his voice and personality as much as possible.”
Petty’s portrayal of Hank Williams was convincing enough to win him an Obie award, the Off-Broadway equivalent of Broadway’s Tony Award, for his performance in the New York production of “Lost Highway.” Petty liked acting but did not want to stay in New York, so he returned to Tennessee and began writing his own country music-themed shows, including “Hank Williams: The Lonesome Tour.”