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Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy Exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

The Williams family has had a major impact on Country Music. This 5,000-square-foot exhibition at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum examines the personal lives of Hank Williams and Hank Williams Jr. and explores the dynamics that inspired some of the most influential music recorded.
See the connections between these iconic figures and their creative heirs and discover how American music continues to be measured by the standards they set. To help tell the story, Hank Jr., Jett Williams and members of the Williams family have offered more than 200 rare artifacts never seen by the public, enabling the Museum to create a memorably compelling saga of love, heartache and redemption. The voices and music of the family are heard throughout the exhibit — an intimate, behind-the-scenes portrait of a great American musical dynasty. The Exhibit has been extended through Dec. 31, 2011.
 Hank Williams III will perform at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Oct. 10.
 
Hank III, like his father, blends the honky-tonk and Country blues sounds of his grandfather with the rock & roll sensibility of his own generation. The result – hard-charging musical arrangements and swaggering, bluntly personal lyrics that probe relationships and southern culture and challenge contemporary mores – can be heard when Hank III visits the Museum on Oct. 10 for a special performance in the Museum’s Ford Theater.
 
The program, which is presented in conjunction with the Museum’s exhibition Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy, Co-presented by SunTrust and the Ford Motor Company, will begin at 1:30 PM and is included with Museum admission and is free to Museum members.
 
Hosted by Family Tradition co-curator Michael McCall, the program will feature an acoustic performance by Hank III and members of his touring band. The concert will draw on Hank III’s four solo albums released on Curb Records since his 1999 debut, Risin’ Outlaw.  Please note that this program may contain mature content.
 
Shelton Williams, who performs as Hank III, was born Dec.12, 1972, the first child of Hank Williams Jr. and his second wife, Gwen. In his mid-teens, Hank III played drums and guitar on stage with his father. By high school, the Nashville resident shifted to punk rock, touring regionally with the bands Buzzkill and Bedwetter. In 1996, Hank III began performing Country songs in Branson, Mo., to raise money for child support payments. That year, he recorded an album, Three Hanks: Men with Broken Hearts, which merged his voice in a trio with his grandfather, Hank Williams, and father. Since signing with Curb and recording his own albums, Hank III has gained a passionate underground following and tours internationally to wildly enthusiastic crowds.
 
These programs are made possible, in part, by grants from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and by an agreement between the Tennessee Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. 
 
Additional promotional support is being provided by the Museum’s official Family Tradition media partners: Great American Country Television Network, Cumulus Broadcasting and The Tennessean.