Available is a new book on country music legend Hank Williams. Ramblin’ Man – Short Stories from the Life of Hank Williams is nearly 200 pages long, filled with many related photographs. It is well put together along with a glossy front and back covers. The foreword is written by Robert Gentry. The book is a collection of many short stories, most about previously unknown topics relating to Hank Williams. There are a total of 51 separate stories.

Stories included are about: Hank’s brother Ernest Huble Williams who died as an infant; Hank’s first home; the lady who helped deliver Hank; the story of his delayed birth certificate; a short college stint; a lenghty 32-page article on the 1949 Grand Ole Opry Eurpoean Tour (co-written with Manfred Reinhard); Hank’s 1951 Montgomery Homecoming; his 1952 Greenville Homecoming; his Nashville farm; his Nashville home he shared with Ray Price; several stories concerning Hank’s songs; story of locations Hank played and many others.

This book is a must for every Hank Williams or Country Music fan and collector. The author will sign any book ordered.

American Roots Review                                                                                 November 30, 2007

When researching to write a book a writer has to look into every aspect of the subjects’ life, including places they went, people they knew.  Many times these stories don’t get told completely or are used only to inform the writer of their subjects’ surroundings.

While researching the last days of Hank Williams, Brian Turpen has run down many leads and collected several stories having to do with Hank’s life.  Turpen, a policeman by day, became interested in Hank’s life after reading Colin Escott’s seminal Hank biography (Turpen even appeared in Escott’s Honky-Tonk Blues documentary).  His interest and his experience in police work lead Turpen to delve deep into the last days of Hank.  In the midst of that research Turpen also wrote occasional articles on various aspects of Hanks’ life for fan newsletters.

The subtitle of the book is Short Stories from the Life of Hank Williams, and Turpen has brought together information on nearly aspect of Hank’s life.  Turpen has put many years of research into stories on things like Hank’s birth certificate (it was filed ten and a half years after Hank’s birth), several of the places Hank played, his radio days, his songwriting and his love of baseball.

One of the best stories is the detailed recounting of the 1949 Grand Ole Opry tour of Europe.  The tour required the permission and the cooperation of many government officials and the artists, which included Red Foley, Little Jimmy Dickens, Minnie Pearl and other, played for our troops who were still stationed throughout the continent.
If you are a fan of Hank Williams or of country music history you will enjoy this book and the perspective it lends to the life of one of the greatest songwriters in music history.

C. Eric Banister

About the author: Eric's work has been published in Bluegrass Unlimited, Country Standard Time, Blue Suede News and Maverick.  He is currently working on a biography of steel guitarist Bud Isaacs.

Books Corner Review                                                                                                 October 2007             
Western Mail # 10

Attention Hank Williams Country Music Fans

As we all know, many good books have been written about the Life and Music of Hank Williams.  But I would like to draw your attention to a new book that has just been published a short while ago (actually Klaus says a few days ago), and that is so different from all the books that have appeared so far.

“Ramblin’ Man – Short Stories from the Life of Hank Williams” – authored by Brian Turpen (USA), a Police Officer by profession and well versed in investigations and research, has created an impressive book. He received support from the Manfred A. Reinhardt.  On over 200 pages the reader will find 51 stories with many photos. They offer insight into events and episodes of the great singer’s/songwriter’s life that remained unpublished up to now. In a chapter covering 32 pages Turpen and German national Manfred A. Reinhardt narrates the Grand Ole Opry Tour to Germany in 1949, with the participation of Hank Williams, Red Foley, Roy Accuff, Little Jimmie Dickens and others to perform in Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Heidelberg, Berlin, Munich and Vienna (Austria). This book is a “must” for every country music fan as well as an asset in each Hank Williams collection – and perhaps the ideal gift for Christmas.

Klaus Koch

Rockin’ Fifties magazine                                                                                            October 2007

Book Recommendation

WOW, what a  book!

There are many ways to fill the pages of a book. Some writers collect raw and often poorly researched information, thus getting their pages together. There are authors who consider it a waste of time in doing their own research, and rather copy most of the story from existing publications. But there are other authors, who are dedicated to high standards of ethics and professionalism, doing nothing less than meticulously researching facts.  At the very top of such a fine group of writers deserving the highest marks for factual reporting, stands Brian Turpen.  With the title Ramblin’ Man, Turpen now presents a book for advanced readers of the Hank Williams Bibliography.  This book puts other highly applauded publications dealing with Hank in the shade, making them look like articles from the Boulevard Press.

While, for example, renowned chronics mention with a few words only the possible existence of a brother to Hank, Brian Turpen presents and evaluates the official death certificate of a certain Earnest Hubble Williams, who indeed was Hank’s elder brother.

Turpen neither speculates nor fills gaps just by logic or probability. He rather examines details from the life of Hank Williams that appear insignificant, to their very depth. Where others stop with their research, Turpen even starts to dig further.

He is not another biographer of Hank Williams. He picks out events that had an impact on Hank’s life and creates a full story out of some rudimentary information.

This book is structured into 51 independent chapters making it a masterpiece for undivided reading pleasure.
A few of those stories have been used in the past to be circulated among experts. The major part of material is, however, introduced to the public for the very first time. Brian Turpen is regarded as one of the leading Hank Williams experts worldwide. When experts of such calibre flock together, one can’t be missed out. A sprawling piece on the 1949 Grand Ole Opry European Tour was co-written with Manfred Reinhardt from Germany. Manfred is well known to this magazine for his accuracy and profound knowledge of Hank Williams and his time. While other authors briefly mention the meanwhile legendary European tour in a few sentences at most, Turpen and Reinhardt captivates and fascinates the reader with an abundance of facts showing the human side of that trip.

Although not all of the 51 stories might appeal to everybody just the same or awake their curiosity, still this book will fascinate the reader from its first to the last page. It belongs to the collection of each and every Hank Williams enthusiast.

It is from my own personal conviction THE Publication for years.

Sven Bergmann

For US orders, send $15.00 (that’s postage included)
For orders outside the US, the cost of the book is $12.00 plus shipping.
Canada rate is $4.00 / All others would be International Priority shipping of $8.00
Check or money order accepted / Paypal is also available for $1.00 additional
Make inquiry for bulk orders, multiple orders, priority shipping or Paypal

Send orders to:
Brian Turpen
303 Heltonville Road West
Bedford, IN 47421