Don Helms, the steel guitarist whose aching instrumental cry gave musical voice to the anguish and the joy in virtually all the key recordings by country music titan Hank Williams, died Monday in Nashville, apparently of a heart attack. He was 81.
Helms died at Skyline Medical Center, said Michael Thomas, a director at Forest Lawn Funeral Home.
Helms' steel guitar sound brought a visceral mournfulness to Williams' heartache ballads, including “Your Cheatin' Heart," “I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," “Cold, Cold Heart" and “I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)." It also provided the electric jolt to his upbeat hits such as “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" and “Hey, Good Lookin'."
“It was crystal clear to me that he single-handedly gave this music its identity," 19-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter-guitarist Vince Gill said Wednesday. “On so many of those records, the sound of that weeping guitar is what you hear long before you hear Hank's voice."
The key element of Helms' style was the piercing, high-pitched notes he favored, a strategy suggested to him early on by fabled Nashville publisher, songwriter and producer Fred Rose, who helped shape Williams' songs and career.
“That treble would stall dogs," said John Rumble, senior historian at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “Don told me that one time when he was recording with Hank, Fred Rose took his hands and put them out just past the treble strings and said, 'Don, play up here.'
“It was Fred's belief, which proved accurate, that a high, whining sound would cut through the noise of a typical roadhouse or bar where people would be talking, dancing and carrying on."
George Jones, widely considered the greatest country singer since Williams, said Thursday, “Hank Sr. was always my favorite artist and is still my favorite artist, so you'd have to say Don Helms was right there with Hank in my mind. I think all the sidemen that Hank used back in those days were the finest musicians in the world. And Don was the standout player. You heard him more than anyone except the fiddle. It's a sad thing to see them all go."
