Don Helms, the last surviving member of Hank Williams’ band, The Drifting Cowboys, died Monday in Nashville at the age of 81. Helms played for a decade with Williams, from 1943 up until his premature death on New Year’s Day, 1953 while on the way to a performance in Canton, Ohio. His steel guitar provided an aching, visceral tone of grief to Williams’ music and hence, its very identity. On so many of those recordings, the mourning steel guitar is the first thing the listener hears rather than Williams’ voice.
The key element to Helms’ style was the high-pitched, piercing notes he favored on his old-style non-pedal steel guitar. He kept the same instrument, a 1949 Gibson model that he took on the road with him while touring with the Drifting Cowboys, under his bed during his retirement years. He would take it out on special occasions.
The high-pitched notes were suggested to Helms by Fred Rose, a famous Nashville songwriter and producer who helped shape Williams’ career as well as his songs. It was Rose’s belief that a high, whining sound would cut through the noise of a typical roadhouse or bar where people would be talking, dancing, arguing, drinking and just carrying on. That belief turned out to be right.
Helms was born on a farm in New Brockton, Alabama. As a boy, he fell in love with the music of our own Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and in particular, with the steel guitar music of Leon McAuliffe. He got his first steel guitar from his grandmother when he was 15 and at the tender age of 18, began to play with Williams around the joints in Alabama. After Williams’ death, Helms joined the Ray Price band and was a key part of that singer’s success in the 1950s.
Helms’ contributions can be heard in Patsy Cline’s “Walking After Midnight” and in Ernest Tubbs’ “Letters Have No Arms.” He recorded literally hundreds of songs by Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Ferlin Husky, Chet Atkins and ”Gentleman” Jim Reeves to name but a fraction of artists. And his work was recognized not only by Nashville stalwarts but by musicians from diverse backgrounds, such as Bon Jovi and Kid Rock who invited Helms into recording sessions.
Helms was once asked at a question and answer panel about the last time he ever saw Hank Williams. He said they were recording and Williams, who called Helms “Shag” because of his curly hair, said “Shag, I got a new song I just come up with. I want you to give me a pretty good kickoff for it. It goes something like this.” Helms described how he and the band recorded the newly written song by Williams in just one take. Then Williams said that he was tired and left the studio. It was the last time that Helms ever saw Williams. The date was September, 1952 and the song was “Your Cheatin Heart.” It was Williams’ biggest hit, released posthumously.