Hank Williams tribute set to help ring in 2017 with New Year's Day show

Charlottetown's second-annual Hank Williams tribute will help Islanders ring and sing in the new year.

The town's resident musician Nudie is behind throwing the Sunday matinee together. He said it was inspired by his love for Williams' music and wanting to give people another option to celebrate.

"There's been many tributes, but I thought it was a great one here in P.E.I., " he said.

"[I thought] I would do a matinee show for people that don't want to go at night and go out the night before. Maybe they did go out the night before, but there's an option there."

'I'm doing it just out of love'

This year's show will take place at Hot Shots Lounge at 4 p.m. Tickets can be purchased there or online viaNudie's website.

Nudie said he got the idea last year and hosted the first tribute show with great success, selling out the venue and gaining much praise from the audience.

"The audience, a lot of people came up to me before and after and said, 'Thanks for doing this,'" he said.

"You know, I'm doing it just out of love because I love Hank Williams and that music but they said, 'Thanks for doing this because there's not a lot of places we can do see this.'"

Williams died on New Year's Day in 1953 on his way to a concert on Canton, Ohio. This being part of the reason Nudie wanted to perform such a tribute show, he said he's had a love for Williams since he was a kid.

An inspiration to Island musicians

"There were songs, Hey, Good Lookin', I think, I just knew what that was or I didn't know it was Hank Williams but I remember liking the song as a kid," Nudie said.

"But somebody had put it on the back end of a compilation cassette in the late '80s for me, and there were a couple of songs, they just floored me. Just the honesty of the lyrics, the simplicity."

Nudie said those traits of Williams' music have inspired his own, along with many others. He will perform alongside Liam Corcoran, Nick Doneff, Dan Currie, Katie McGarry, Adam MacGregor, Serge Bernard, and Janet McGarry to celebrate the country music legend and the new year with Islanders of all ages.

"I like songs that could be sung or performed by anybody in kind of a classic form, and that's what his were."

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