Hank Williams
Don Helms (
Clent Holmes
Herbert "Lum" York
Joe Pennington
Lemuel Curtiss Crysel
Cedric Rainwater
Sammy Pruitt
Grady Martin Billy Byrd Jack Drake Smith Addair Daniel Jack Boling Freddy Beach George Brown Louis Brown Hillous Butrum Lefty Clark Paul Compton Curly Corbin Clyde Criswell Zeke Crittenden Richard Paul Dennis, Jr
The Drifting Cowboys were the backing group for American music legend Hank Williams. The band went through several lineups during Williams's career, and surviving members of the group continue to tour and make public appearances to this day.
One modern day version of the group, the backing band for William's daughter Jett Williams, was led by original Drifting Cowboys steel guitarist Don Helms; another version of the group known as "Hank's Drifters" features original Drifting Cowboys members Clent Holmes and Pee Wee Moultrie. Moultrie, Holmes and Helms made many appearances with former Drifting Cowboys bassist Herbert "Lum" York until York's death in 2004.
Former Drifting Cowboys lead guitarist Joe Pennington later became a pioneering Rockabilly artist and continues to tour and record both Country Music and Gospel Music. Former Drifting Cowboy Hillous Butrum later became a successful record producer and pioneer in the field of music videos. Ray Price took over the band after Williams' death for a short time.
Famous quotes containing the words drifting and/or cowboys:
“Holland is a dream, Monsieur, a dream of gold and smoke—smokier by day, more gilded by night. And night and day that dream is peopled with Lohengrins like these, dreamily riding their black bicycles with high handle-bars, funereal swans constantly drifting throughout the whole country, around the seas, along the canals.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“What do you think spies are: priests, saints and martyrs? They’re a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors too, yes; pansies, sadists and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives.”
—John le Carré (b. 1931)