The Saga of Hank Williams' Notebook

Widely considered to be one of America's greatest songwriters and the "father of modern country music," the legendary Hank Williams penned such notable songs as "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." Although Hank's brief but reckless recording career (1947-1952) was more rock & roll than country in spirit, plagued as it was by excesses of drugs and alcohol and various romantic problems, his music continues to influence country, rock and folk artists almost 55 years after his premature death at the age of 29 on New Year's Day 1953.

Ol' Hank has been back in the news again, not for any old recently discovered antics, but rather for the controversy surrounding one of his old songwriting notebooks. Well-known among country music historians, the notebook includes rough outlines and lyrics for seventeen unpublished songs that were never recorded by Williams, as well as various comments and thoughts by the songwriter, written down between May 1947 and 1949.

The notebook came into the possession of Nashville, Tennessee collectors Stephen Shutts and Robert Reynolds during the summer of 2006 when Shutts bought a box of music memorabilia after being contacted by a Nashville area couple. The two men run the Honky Tonk Hall Of Fame, a traveling roadshow of musical history that features some 1,700+ items, including a vintage pair of Elvis Presley's underwear, dated from 1970. Reynolds is also well-known to music fans as bass guitarist for the Mavericks, a popular early-90s country-rock band that recorded several albums.