I'm Movin' On: The Wanderings and Musings of Clarence Eugene “Hank” Snow, The “Singing Ranger”

Hank" Snow, The "Singing Ranger"That big eight-wheeler rollin' down the track Means your true-lovin' daddy ain't comin' back I'm movin' on I'll soon be gone You were flyin' too high for my little old sky So I'm movin' on IHank Snow had one ofthe most unusual and inspiring careers in the history oftwentieth century music in general, and country music in particular.He was an active performer for more than sixty years and worked under the same label, R.c.A., for forty-five years.In 1951, he was voted by fans of Cowboy Song Round-Up as their favorite country singer (Peterson, 1997, p. 182) and, in 1979, was voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (Ellison, 1995, p. 7).He recorded 100 country music albums, sold over 70 million records, and made clear that "good ole country music" was really the only kind of music for him (Cantin, 1999; Wolfe, 1994, pp.535-540).That would be a good enough career for any performing artist, making him prominent enough to be worth of scholarly attention.However, Snow was much more.His influence transcended his mere playing and singing.He was distinctive enough to be a subject (one might say a victim) of Robert Altman's Nashville.In that 1975 film Henry Gibson played a self-centered patriarch whose resemblance to Snow was uncanny.Snow's songs were recognizable enough to show up on popular television shows and commercials.A band-aid company used his hit, "I Don't Hurt Anymore" while Johnny Cash rumbled a version of his "I've Been Everywhere" in a Citgo advertisement.His song, "I'm Movin On," was recorded scores of times by leading popular and country artists and appeared on many network television programs shows such as the "Perry Como Show" (The Country Music Foundation, 1994.p. 166).The artist known first as the "Yodeling Ranger," then, after his voice deepened, as "The Singing Ranger," wielded enormous influence in country music in many ways: by recording a wide-ranging catalogue, as though reminding younger singers that every song they made need not sound like their last one; by sticking to Popular Culture Review a distinctive vocal and musical style that kept his records selling and his concerts sold-out even when the commercial trends in country music changed; by branching out into other venues so that he would be less dependent fmancially upon those commercial trends; and by helping develop the careers ofyounger artists (Malone, 1985, p. 90).He gave one young singer of the 1950s the chance to perform on his segment ofthe Grand Ole Opry (Touches, 45).From there he guided the singer on a nationwide tour allowing him to get out of Memphis, onto a record label, and eventually to "The Ed Sullivan Show," movies, television, the leading Las Vegas showrooms, concert halls, and ultimately back to Memphis and Graceland.(Snow, 1994, pp.380-391).Snow was influential in other ways as well.He was the most popular country music performer ever to come from Canada, enabling music to literally cross borders and he was the last living link to the creation of modem county music by Jimmie Rodgers, considered the "Father of Country Music" (Slotek, 1999;Van Wyk, 1999; Malone, 1985, p. 90).His own life was a more fascinating Horatio Alger story than Alger ever wrote.When Hank Snow died on December 20, 1999, at the age of85, the music world lost a major historical figure whose life and times merit discussion and analysis, and whose story is a parable and an allegory on twentieth century American music and American culture.Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was born on May 9, 1914, in th Nova Scotia town ofBrooklyn, the first and only boy in what would be a family offive children.As he eventually disclosed when he created the Hank Snow Foundation for the Prevention ofChild Abuse and Neglect, International, and later told in his autobiography, The Hank Snow Story, he was the victim of mean behavior at the hands of a grandmother and step-father when he was a child (Snow, 1994, 21 ff).That puts it mildly.As one of his longtime band members, veteran Nashville musician Joe Talbot, said on the occasion of Snow's death, "He had a childhood that would have killed a mule."Snow's parents divorced when he was six, and while his siblings were scattered among relatives and foster homes, he was sent to live with his paternal grandmother.She forbade even the mention of his mother's name and beat him frequently, especially when he disobeyed her orders and visited his mother.Finally, after running away several times, he was allowed to stay with his mother.She then remarried, and as Snow recounted, her new husband regularly cursed him and beat him, despite his mother's pleas (Snow, 1994, pp.21-31).At the age of twelve, Snow left school forever and he left home for four years.He went to sea as a "Flunky" on fishing boats.Returning at age 16, in 1930, he had trouble getting work because Canada was suffering the effects ofthe Great Depression.Snow wandered from job to job and home to home, staying as often as possible with his mother until his step-father would beat him again (Snow,

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