Special Guest Blogger: Hank Williams

I know y'all Brits think that Country and Western music is for men in dungarees called Billy Bob or Bobby Joe who say things like 'That's a pertty mouth on you, boy' to unsuspecting canoeists after engaging them in a banjo playing contest but it isn't all about stetson wearing escapees from the Dukes of Hazard singing depressing songs about how our dog died and our wives left us taking our pick-up truck. 
I was big news back in my day, mostly amongst red necked Americans with southern accents, buck teeth, mullets and holding guns but they make us tough in the American South and it's lucky they did because Heavens to Betsy that moonshine was strong stuff. 
The South has an obsession with moonshine, it promotes a do-it-yourself attitude and since everyone did-it-themselves, they made it as dern tootin strong as they could but it's hard to actually enjoy moonshine because enjoying moonshine means that you drank enough to forget just how awful the stuff is but it does explain why so many rednecks came to think they been anally probed by aliens.
With names like Mule kick or Panther's breath, as long as the drink's title doesn't include the name of a fruit, it doesn't matter what was in it and my ma made the finest hooch this side of the Mississippi.
Just as my songs about hunting, marrying your cousins and dilapidated trucks made banjo playing good ol boys in stetson hats happier than a tornado in a trailer park, the moonshine took it's toll and i died an alcoholic aged just 29.
I was one of the very first to employ the 'Die Young and Sell a Ton of Records' technique, i even wrote a song about it called 'I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive' which seems a bit obvious as nobody does, it's no secret that everybody dies and you need to grasp that fact and write a song all about it just before you die.
It was your standard down-on-your-luck country type of stuff about my wife leaving me and dying horribly and my own blood clots in the heart and neck bought on by my years of chronic alcohol abuse made sure i barely made it out of 1952, dying on News Years Day in 1953.
As for today's music, it's destroying the radio and is only enjoyed by those who can't appreciate how crucial Hawaiian guitars and wash boards are when constructing anything musical.