Though he began his career in the shadow of
his legendary father, Hank Williams Jr. emerged
as a formidable Country singer-songwriter
in his own right with 1960s hits such as "It's
All Over But The Crying" and "Cajun Baby."
But things changed with the 1979 release of
"Family Tradition," where he broke the Nashville
mainstream by adopting a rebel image and
writing/recording in a style incorporating his
Blues and Southern Rock influences. The results
were staggering as 42 Top-10 hits followed,
two CMA Entertainer of the Year honors, three
ACM Entertainer of the Year honors, multiple
Grammy nominations and a Grammy award
for "There's a Tear in My Beer", a duet with his
father using electronic merging technology. As
groundbreaking as Hank Williams Jr. became,
it wasn't just his performance that people
took note about, but rather his songwriting
that became so notable. The driven musician
penned hit songs year after year scoring 20
BMI Awards. One of the arguably most-heard
Country song of modern times, the four-time
Emmy award-winning "Are You Ready For Some
Football?," which was heard nationally as the
theme song of ABC and ESPN's Monday Night
Football telecasts, was aired for 21 years. As
the accolades kept coming, Williams sold over
55 million albums, achieving gold, platinum, and
multi-platinum status along with 13 of those
albums hitting the no. 1 spot on the Billboard
chart. In 2008, Williams was honored with the
BMI Icon award at the 56th annual BMI Country
Awards, joining an elite group of past honorees
including Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Dolly Parton. Today, Hank Williams Jr. writing and recording new material for his first album on Nash Icon Records slatted to be released in 2016.

Grant Maloy Smith is a Billboard Top 10 American Roots Singer/Songwriter with a country bent. He has performed twice at Carnegie Hall, but he is equally at home in a 50-seat listening room. His songs tell heartfelt stories about real people and are unfailingly optimistic and forward-looking. His album, "Dust Bowl - American Stories," earned rave reviews, including one from NO DEPRESSION, the bible of American Roots music. “Grant’s ability to capture the heartland in his music is amazing ... he has written A heartland masterpiece ... lyrics and music as potent as Woody Guthrie ... sent chills down my spine ... bound to become a classic ... A reminder of the darker period of Bob Dylan, and it’s that good, that memorable...” Grant is a member of the CMA and AMA, and his music is distributed by Sony Orchard.

For more songs, stories and links to my newsletter, please visit my website at www.ReisUpStudio.com. Thank you!

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