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DRIFTIN' COWBOYS / Links
MEMBERS OF HANK WILLIAMS, SR BAND (http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/thedriftingcowboys/
USE THE LINK BELOW TO FIND INFORMATION ABOUT "JIMMY PORTER", THE "ONLY LIVING 'ORIGINAL'" MEMBER OF THE COWBOYS. JIMMY PORTER IS NOT ONLY THE ONLY "ORIGINAL" DRIFTIN' COWBOY ALIVE TODAY, HE WAS ALSO THE "YOUNGEST" BAND MEMBER TO EVER WORK WITH HANK. HANK WILLIAMS WAS 18 YEARS OLD AND "JIMMY PORTER" WAS ONLY 13 AT THE TIME HE AUDITIONED FOR HANK AND WAS HIRED.
THEY BECAME BEST FRIENDS AND JIMMY EVEN STAYED IN THE HOME WITH HANK AND HIS MOTHER, LILLIE. THEY TRAVELED MANY MILES TOGETHER ON TOURS AND WITH "MISS LILLIE" DRIVING.
READ ABOUT THIS FINE GENTLEMAN WHO BECAME A STAR IN HIS OWN RIGHT IN THE END. MANY OF YOU MAY REMEMBER JIMMY PORTER, PLAYING STEEL GUITAR, FROM THE OLD "ALABAMA JUBILEE SHOW" THAT AIRED SEVERAL TIMES A WEEK, EVEN ON PRIME TIME, FROM WSFA IN MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA BACK IN THE 1950's.
TODAY, JIMMY IS RETIRED BUT HE AND WIFE, GERALDINE, ARE VOLUNTEERS WORKING TO HELP OUT AT THE HANK WILLIAMS MUSEUM SEVERAL DAYS A WEEK.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/tomlipscombe/porter.txt
"JIMMY PORTER'S" BOOK "MY LIFE AS A MUSICIAN" CAN BE OBTAINED FROM THE HANK WILLIAMS MUSEUM IN MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA. YOU MAY EITHER CALL OR EMAIL BETH BIRTLEY, MANAGER AT 334-262-3600 OR HANKWILLIAMSMUS@AOL.COM FOR A COPY. IT SELLS FOR $10. TO ORDER BY MAIL WRITE TO: THE HANK WILLIAMS MUSEUM, 118 COMMERCE STREET, MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA 36104.
*************NOTE OF INTEREST*****************
ONE OF THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS IS IN REGARD TO THE "DRIFTIN' COWBOYS" LINK FOUND ON OUR WEBSITE. IN PARTICULAR, THE COMMENT ABOUT "JIMMY PORTER" AND HIS RELATIONSHIP AS A DRIFTIN' COWBOY.
FOR CLARIFICATION PLEASE REREAD THE COMMENTS ON OUR WEBSITE ABOUT MR. PORTER. YOU WILL NOTICE THAT IT DOES NOT SAY THAT "JIMMY PORTER IS THE 'ONLY' LIVING DRIFTIN' COWBOY. IT STATES THAT "JIMMY PORTER" IS THE ONLY LIVING ---"ORIGINAL" DRIFTIN' COWBOY.
ALTHOUGH, ALL OF THE OTHER WONDERFUL GENTLEMEN WERE MEMBERS OF THE "DRIFTIN' COWBOYS", NONE OF THOSE STILL LIVING TODAY WERE OF THE --- "ORIGINAL" --- DRIFTIN' COWBOYS. THOSE GREAT GENTLEMEN ALL CAME ALONG "LATER" AS MEMBERS OF HANK WILLIAMS, SR'S BAND.
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"DRIFTIN' COWBOY" "JIMMY PORTER" PLAYS AGAIN!!!!! AFTER SEVENTEEN YEARS OF "HANGING IT UP", JIMMY PORTER "PICKS" AGAIN TO HELP FRIEND "GARRETT MILES."
Posted on Fri, Apr. 23, 2004
Country music forms timeless bond between young singer, old picker
BY BRAD BARNES
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(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.).
Visit the Ledger-Enquirer Online at http://www.l-e-o.com
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
(Thank you for visiting us. More information about the "Cowboys" will be added to this "LINK" site as Bibb Promotional continues to move into our new home WEBSITE here.)
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