An architect of the honky-tonk flavor that would come to define country music in the late 20th century, Hank Williams didn’t do it alone. Backed by his Drifting Cowboys band, Williams relied on the talents of musicians like Don Helms, who is responsible for the piercing steel guitar sound heard on 10 of Williams’ 11 career-chart-toppers. Today, we’re taking a look at the life and career of Donald Hugh Helms, born on this day (Feb. 28) in 1927 in New Brockton, Alabama.
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Don Helms Featured On Over 100 Hank Williams Songs
Helms got his first steel guitar, a Sears Silvertone, at age 15. Because the family farm had no electricity, he played the instrument over a washtub to make it resonate, according to the New York Times.
By 1943, a still-teenage Helms had sharpened his skills enough to play in Hank Williams’ band. During World War II, he left for a stint in the U.S. Army, but returned in 1949. By this time, Williams was a Grand Ole Opry sensation and a regular on the famed Louisiana Hayride program.
As a member of the Drifting Cowboys, Helms featured on more than 100 Hank Williams songs, including “Your Cheatin’ Heart.”
“He said ‘this next one goes like this,’ and he sang about two lines, and said ‘Don, you know what to give me.’ So I kicked that song off, and he sang it all the way through and none of us made a mistake bad enough to stop it because we were going right on to a disc,” he later recalled. “The ironic part is I never saw Hank Williams again after that. He left and went back to Shreveport, and he died before I ever saw him again.”
[RELATED: DONS HELMS: Add Some Steel Guitar, Don Helms and the Songwriting of Hank Williams, Sr.]
He Kept On After Williams’ Death
Hank Williams died of heart failure on New Year’s Day 1953, at age 29. Released later that year, “Your Cheatin’ Heart” spent six weeks at No. 1 on the country charts.
Although tragic, Williams’ death did not signal the end of Don Helms’ career. He went on to record with 45 members of the Country Music Hall of Fame including Loretta Lynn, Ray Price, Webb Pierce and Brenda Lee. You can hear his aggressive steel guitar playing style on songs like Patsy Cline’s “Walkin’ After Midnight” and Lynn’s “Blue Kentucky Girl.”
Don Helms died on Aug. 11, 2008, at 81 years old.
Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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