FORMER DRIFTING COWBOYS ON STAGE AGAIN

By Gerald Hodges

Former members of the Drifting Cowboys on stage at the 2002 Hank Williams Festival     Courtesy of Gerald Hodges

L-R: Bernice Turner, Pee Wee Moultrie, Joe Pennington, R. D. Norred, Clent Holmes

Braxton Schufert, Lum York

Former members of Hank William’s band, The Drifting Cowboys will perform at this year’s annual Hank Williams Festival, June 12-13, at Georgiana, AL.

The Drifting Cowboys band was not comprised of the same members throughout his entire career. Some of the players were regulars, while others played off and on, or as needed.

The original title of the band was Hank and Hezzie’s Driftin’ Cowboys.

Pee Wee Moultrie, who now lives near Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, was one of the earliest band members. His father bought him a guitar and it didn’t take him long to learn how to play it. After hearing Pee Wee King and the Golden West Cowboys on the Grand Ole Opry, he fell in love with the accordion.

"I was working with a small band in 1939 and we had gone to Montgomery to play on the radio (WCOA)," said Moultrie. "While we were in there I noticed a couple fellows watching me.

"It turned out they were Hank Williams and Hezzie Adair, and they were looking for a couple musicians.

"It wasn’t too long after that, the name was changed to Hank Williams and The Drifting Cowboys. Hezzie continued to play with us, but his name was dropped. I’m not sure, but I think he had another job, and it had something to do with that.

"We hardly survived. If it hadn’t been for Hank’s mother putting us up in her boarding house in Montgomery and feeding us, we couldn’t have made it. We didn’t make enough money to buy toothpaste.

"We played schools, churches, and theaters. I’ll bet we played every school in the state. We even played in cow pastures. Once, we played at Camp Kilby, the prison outside Montgomery."

After leaving the band, Moultrie spent 29 years in the Air Force. He continues to play part-time in a band, Hank’s Drifters, formed by another former Drifting Cowboy, Clent Holmes.

According to Holmes of Saraland, AL, there are seven other living band members, plus Braxton Schufert, who had a Montgomery, AL radio program, and often played with Hank. The other members are: Felton Pruett, Pee Wee Moultrie, R. D. Norred, Joe Pennington, Don Helms, Jimmy Porter and Bernice Turner, the only female band member.

"I was on my way to Abilene, Texas in early 1948, when I met Hank," said Holmes. "I had stopped off at a radio station, and Hank was there. He needed a guitar player to go with him on tour and then return to the "Louisiana Hayride."

The two musicians hit it off well, and before long Holmes was the chauffer of the group, driving Hank’s Packard limousine.

"Hank had a lot of confidence in me," continued Holmes. "He was one of the most honest fellows you ever met. When it came time for payday, he would look you up. A lot has been said about his drinking, but he was an honest person who loved fishing and good country food."

Jimmy Porter (who is now deceased) was still in school when he went to work for Hank. The year was 1941. He was 13 years old. That made Porter the youngest full-time member of the Drifting Cowboys. Porter was often billed as "the steel guitar wizard."

"Hank was one of the finest people to work with, I’ve ever known," said Porter. "He never got mad at you, he was just a cool fella, easy going, friendly, and would give you the shirt off his back.

"I never saw him take a drink, and I know what his book says, but I worked with him for four years, and I never saw him drunk.

"The second job I played with him was Thigpen’s Log Cabin. The front part was the service station. The honky-tonk part was on the side. It was a rough place, but it wasn’t rough on the inside. All the rough stuff went on outside.

"He wasn’t doing all that much writing then. He had written two or three songs and we played them, but we played a lot of Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff.

"We worked out of Montgomery, and really, we weren’t doing all that much playing. I was in high school, so we would play maybe one or two nights a week. Maybe we would go two or three weeks without playing, so that’s why he had so many Drifting Cowboys.

"They couldn’t make a living, especially if they were married.

"We stayed friends until the day he died, and every time he came through Montgomery, he would call me. The last time I saw him alive was on the Hadacol show when it came to Montgomery in August, 1951. He was on the Pullman car and I talked with him for a long time, and he was doing fine."

According to Don Helms, (also deceased) Hank’s former steel guitar player, Williams was trying to get his career back on track by proving to promoters that he could be sober and reliable. He had scheduled two shows; one in West Virginia, and the second in Canton, Ohio.

"I had left Hank and was playing for Ray Price’s band," said Helms. "We had an off week, and the band had agreed to play for Hank at Canton.

"We were unable to fly out of Nashville due to it snowing and had to drive. As soon as we reached the auditorium in Canton, the promoter gave us the news of his death."

Williams died on January 1, 1953 in Oak Hill, West Virginia.