Hank Snow
singer-songwriter | 1914 - 1999
BornClarence Eugene "Hank" Snow on May 9, 1914 in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia, Canada
DiedDecember 20, 1999 in Madison, Tennessee, USA
Biographyby Stuart Berman
Born in Nova Scotia but coronated in Nashville, Hank Snow is country music personified. He translated his early itinerant life experiences into timeless travelling songs and managed to sell an astonishing 70 million records worldwide. Though a traditionalist at heart, Snow’s hip-shakin’ take on classic country music would stir the loins of future rock ’n’ roll bad boys like Elvis and The Rolling Stones.
IN DEPTH
Few Canadians may be aware that our country has its own Liverpool. Located on the south shore of Nova Scotia, it’s a tiny town whose population hovers just below 3,000. But in the annals of Canadian country music, the Liverpool of the Maritimes is a musical landmark on par with its more famous namesake port city in England. There, in an old converted train station, you’ll find the Hank Snow Home Town Museum, a public archive celebrating the unparalleled career of Canada’s most prolific country-music star.
Technically, Liverpool wasn’t Snow’s hometown—he was born in nearby Brooklyn. His parents divorced when young Hank (then Clarence) was eight, and he was left in the custody of a domineering paternal grandmother who subjected him to brutal beatings. To escape the torment, Snow would make covert trips to visit his mother in her new home of Liverpool, often spending the night in the very train station that now bears his name. It was there that Snow’s mom, a budding musician, introduced him to the guitar—though it was her abusive new husband who prompted the 12-year-old to flee town and become a fishing-boat cabin boy, which would help him procure the means to buy his own instrument.
While at sea, Snow developed his playing technique, absorbing country-music styles he heard on radio broadcasts and performing for his shipmates. Following a treacherous, near-fatal excursion into a storm, Snow swore off the seafaring life for good to focus on music, spending the next few years working odd jobs and playing for little or no pay around the Maritimes.
His first real break came in 1933, courtesy of Halifax station CHNS. Snow scored his first radio show and rebranded himself Hank the Yodelling Ranger (a nod to the vocal style he inherited from his greatest influence, American country star Jimmie Rodgers). A recording contract with RCA Victor soon followed—one that would stay in effect for an unprecedented 45 years and yield more than 100 albums.
Snow remained a popular performer in Canada throughout the ’40s (during which time he moved beyond yodelling to develop his own signature twang). But in the U.S., he would prove to be an overnight sensation 20 years in the making. Following a move to Nashville at the encouragement of country phenom Ernest Tubb, Snow scored his first Stateside smash with the rollicking blues-based kiss-off “I’m Movin’ On.” That tune would be covered by everyone from Johnny Cash to Ray Charles to The Rolling Stones, and spark a string of Top 10 U.S. country hits through the 1950s and early ’60s (not to mention countless appearances at The Grand Ole Opry). But even as Snow’s chart placements began to slide downward as country turned slicker —1974’s “Hello Love” was his first American No. 1 single in 12 years, and would ultimately be his last such achievement—Snow remained a tireless (and always snazzily attired) performer right up to his early eighties. He would die three years later, at the age of 85. In light of the awful strife he endured as a young’un, being the hardest-working man in country music was easy.
Born in Nova Scotia but coronated in Nashville, Hank Snow is country music personified. He translated his early itinerant life experiences into timeless travelling songs and managed to sell an astonishing 70 million records worldwide. Though a traditionalist at heart, Snow’s hip-shakin’ take on classic country music would stir the loins of future rock ’n’ roll bad boys like Elvis and The Rolling Stones.
IN DEPTH
Few Canadians may be aware that our country has its own Liverpool. Located on the south shore of Nova Scotia, it’s a tiny town whose population hovers just below 3,000. But in the annals of Canadian country music, the Liverpool of the Maritimes is a musical landmark on par with its more famous namesake port city in England. There, in an old converted train station, you’ll find the Hank Snow Home Town Museum, a public archive celebrating the unparalleled career of Canada’s most prolific country-music star.
Technically, Liverpool wasn’t Snow’s hometown—he was born in nearby Brooklyn. His parents divorced when young Hank (then Clarence) was eight, and he was left in the custody of a domineering paternal grandmother who subjected him to brutal beatings. To escape the torment, Snow would make covert trips to visit his mother in her new home of Liverpool, often spending the night in the very train station that now bears his name. It was there that Snow’s mom, a budding musician, introduced him to the guitar—though it was her abusive new husband who prompted the 12-year-old to flee town and become a fishing-boat cabin boy, which would help him procure the means to buy his own instrument.
While at sea, Snow developed his playing technique, absorbing country-music styles he heard on radio broadcasts and performing for his shipmates. Following a treacherous, near-fatal excursion into a storm, Snow swore off the seafaring life for good to focus on music, spending the next few years working odd jobs and playing for little or no pay around the Maritimes.
His first real break came in 1933, courtesy of Halifax station CHNS. Snow scored his first radio show and rebranded himself Hank the Yodelling Ranger (a nod to the vocal style he inherited from his greatest influence, American country star Jimmie Rodgers). A recording contract with RCA Victor soon followed—one that would stay in effect for an unprecedented 45 years and yield more than 100 albums.
Snow remained a popular performer in Canada throughout the ’40s (during which time he moved beyond yodelling to develop his own signature twang). But in the U.S., he would prove to be an overnight sensation 20 years in the making. Following a move to Nashville at the encouragement of country phenom Ernest Tubb, Snow scored his first Stateside smash with the rollicking blues-based kiss-off “I’m Movin’ On.” That tune would be covered by everyone from Johnny Cash to Ray Charles to The Rolling Stones, and spark a string of Top 10 U.S. country hits through the 1950s and early ’60s (not to mention countless appearances at The Grand Ole Opry). But even as Snow’s chart placements began to slide downward as country turned slicker —1974’s “Hello Love” was his first American No. 1 single in 12 years, and would ultimately be his last such achievement—Snow remained a tireless (and always snazzily attired) performer right up to his early eighties. He would die three years later, at the age of 85. In light of the awful strife he endured as a young’un, being the hardest-working man in country music was easy.
