(KRT) - While walking the grounds of the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery, Ala., last September, Jimmy Porter saw a fellow who caught his eye.

He was a striking kid, with dark hair and dark eyes. He was carrying a guitar case.

"I said, `That boy there can sing, I guarantee you,'" said Porter, 76. "I didn't know he was blind."

Porter, who lives in Montgomery, played steel guitar as one of Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys for four years, way back when. And the young blind fellow turned out to be 15-year-old Garrett Miles of Phenix City, Ala.

The age difference is the only unlikely thing about the close friendship they've developed.

"We kind of share the same interest in music," said Miles, who is such a fan of Hank Williams that he recently recorded an entire CD on which he sings the legendary crooner's tunes. His enthusiasm reinvigorated Porter so much that the old picker sidled up to a steel guitar for the first time in 17 years.

The two spent a recent Friday afternoon in Smiths Station's Whistle Stop Studios, recording a new song.

They made quite a pair in the small studio. Porter tried to work his fingers over the tiny strings of the steel guitar. The fingers are fatter than they were in `86, he mused, or the strings on the guitar were closer together. Miles, clad in a vibrant shirt based on Texas' flag - along with bolo tie and cowboy hat - strummed an acoustic guitar and sang a little bit.

His voice might be a bit thin compared to today's modern country standards, but heck, he's just a kid, and ol' Hank's voice wasn't exactly a full-bodied sound either. The song was "Steel Guitar Man," penned specifically for the duo by Miles' friend Tom Staton.

Miles' passion for the honky-tonker goes years back, mother Jan Miles said. Elvis was his man, until his grandfather played him Williams' "Long Gone Lonesome Blues." He was hooked.

"If the love of it made you rich, he'd be a millionaire," Jan Miles said.

Porter stopped playing with Williams some three years before "Move It On Over" made him a big star and started him blazing a trail for modern country music.

Unforgettable songs like "Hey, Good Lookin'" and "Jambalaya" were just some seven years away, but most around Williams' Montgomery, Ala., headquarters had no idea.

"He was not real popular," Porter said. "In fact, my granddaddy didn't like hillbilly music."

But Porter saw his talent.

"He's the best singer that ever lived," he said. "Of course, Garrett's going to be next."

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© 2004, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (Columbus, Ga.).

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KEEP WATCHING FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON OUR BUDDY, "GARRETT MILES." THIS ONE IS GOING PLACES AND ALREADY ON HIS WAY.

WE WILL SOON POST PHOTOS AND CD'S.