Hank Williams

Hiram King "Hank" Williams, (/hæŋk wɪljəmz /; September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, Williams recorded 35 singles (five released posthumously) that would place in the Top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, including 11 that ranked number one.

Born in Mount Olive, Butler County, Alabama, Williams moved to Georgiana, where he met Rufus Payne, a black street performer who gave him guitar lessons in exchange for meals or money. Payne had a major influence on Williams' later musical style, along with Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb. During this time, Williams informally changed his name to Hank, believing it to be a better name for country music. He moved to Montgomery and his music career began there in 1937, when WSFA radio station producers hired him to perform and host a 15-minute program. He formed as backup the Drifting Cowboys band, which was managed by his mother, and dropped out of school to devote his time to his career.

Honky-tonk

The term "honky-tonk" has been applied to various styles of 20th century American music. A honky-tonk (also called a honkatonk, honkey-tonk, or tonk) is the name given to a type of bar that provides country music for entertainment to its patrons. Bars of this kind are common in the Southern and Southwestern regions of the United States, where country music is most popular. Many country music legends, such as Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, Patsy Cline, and Ernest Tubb began their careers as amateur musicians in honky-tonks.

The origin of the term honky-tonk is disputed. Honky tonks were rough establishments, with music throughout the United States, that served alcoholic beverages to a working class clientele. Honky tonks sometimes also offered dancing, piano players or small bands, and were sometimes also centers of prostitution. Katrina Hazzard-Gordon writes that the honky-tonk was "the first urban manifestation of the jook", and that "the name itself became synonymous with a style of music." Honky tonk originally referred to bawdy variety shows in the West (Oklahoma and Indian Territories and Texas) and to the theaters housing them. The distinction between honky tonks, saloons and dancehalls was often blurred, especially in cowtowns, mining districts, military forts and oilfields of the West.

Honky

Honky (also spelled honkie or sometimes honkey) is mainly a derogatory word for white people, predominantly heard in the United States. The first recorded use of honky in this context may date back to 1946, although the use of "Honky Tonk" occurred in films well before that time. The exact origins of the word are generally unknown and postulations about the subject vary.

Possible meanings, origins and uses

Honky may be a variant of hunky, which was a deviation of Bohunk, a slur for Bohemian-Hungarian immigrants in the early 1900s. Honky may have come from coal miners in Oak Hill, West Virginia. The miners were segregated; blacks in one section, whites in another. Foreigners who could not speak English, mostly from Europe, were separated from both groups into an area known as "Hunk Hill". These male laborers were known as "Hunkies".

Honky may also derive from the term "xonq nopp" which, in the West African language Wolof, literally means "red-eared person" or "white person". The term may have originated with Wolof-speaking people brought to the U.S. It is mainly used by few black Americans as a term of abuse for "white man."

Tonkin

Tonkin (Vietnamese: Bắc Kỳ, historically Đàng Ngoài), also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. "Tonkin" is a corruption of Đông Kinh (東京), the name of Hanoi during the Lê Dynasty. Locally, Tonkin is known as Bắc Kỳ, meaning "Northern Region". Located on the fertile delta of the Red River, Tonkin is rich in rice production.

History

The area was called Văn Lang by Vietnamese ancestors at around 2000–100 BC. Evidence of the earliest established society other than the Đông Sơn culture in Northern Vietnam was found in the area of the Cổ Loa Citadel, the core of the ancient city of Cổ Loa, situated near the historical and present-day capital of Vietnam—Hà Nội. According to Vietnamese myths the first Vietnamese peoples descended from the Dragon Lord Lạc Long Quân and the Immortal Fairy Âu Cơ. Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ had 100 sons before they decided to part ways. 50 of the children went with their mother to the mountains, and the other 50 went with their father to the sea. The eldest son became the first in a line of earliest Vietnamese kings, collectively known as the Hùng kings (Hùng Vương or the Hồng Bàng Dynasty). The Hùng kings called the country, which was then located on the Red River delta in present-day northern Vietnam, Văn Lang. The people of Văn Lang were referred to as the Lạc Việt.