Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,898

This is the grave of Lum York.

Born in 1918 in Elmore, Alabama, York grew up there and started playing bass in country bands. There’s not really that much to say about York except for one thing and that thing matters–he was Hank Williams’ bass player. That was not an easy gig because Hank Williams may have been a genius, but he was absolutely one of the greatest disasters of a human being in history, though country musicians tended to group at the top of this category. See one Jones, George. Well, Hank was George’s hero and that wasn’t just musically, but how to live. So imagine having to play every night, trying to keep time with someone like Hank, who might or might not be sober enough to get through a show or even a song.

York was playing with Williams as early as the summer of 1946. He wasn’t getting rich, that’s for sure. Many of Hank’s musicians ended up living with his mother, but at least York lived close enough to Hank that he could live with his own mother. But that’s not exactly the high life. He later noted that Hank also used to try and hang out with him if there was nothing else for him to do because ol’ Hank was scared of being alone with his own thoughts. York tried to avoid this whenever he could. York stuck it out when many other musicians did not because he could see the potential in what Hank was doing, although Hank was such a disaster that there were plenty of times when York had to find other work. He always came back though, the most loyal of the musicians Williams worked with. But Williams broke up his classic band in August 1949, as “Lovesick Blues” was a huge hit.

After this, York worked for Lefty Frizzell. Lefty was less nuts than Hank and also paid more and on time and didn’t just drink it away or waste it in some other way like Williams did. So later, when Williams begged York to return to his band, York said no, noting that he was simply making far more money and understandably sick of working with a crazy person. He would have a good career playing bass for leading country singers, including Marty Robbins and George Morgan.

York would show up here and there for the rest of his life, though almost always in a backing role. He did have what seems to be his own set at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1986, a way for fans of that to get a glimpse of someone who worked for Hank Williams. In 1998, he had a heart attack and the bass was too much for him. But he started playing the spoons professionally. Both Hank Jr. and Hank III brought York in to play with them as a connection to their ancestor. His heart though eventually gave out and he died in 2004, at the age of 85.

Lum York is buried in Green Oaks Memorial Park, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

If you would like this series to visit other famous country musicians, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Chet Atkins is in Nashville and Luther Perkins is in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.