George Hamilton IV, the 50-year "
Grand Ole Opry"
star known as the "International Ambassador of Country Music," died
Wednesday at a Nashville hospital. Mr. Hamilton was 77 and had suffered a
heart attack on Saturday.
In a business populated by brash and
outlandish stars, Mr. Hamilton traded on subtlety, gentility and
decency. In the liner notes of his 1968 RCA album, "The Gentle Country
Sound of George Hamilton IV," he wrote of a "quiet, beautiful musical
revolution in the world of country music."
"This revolutionary
grew up in the city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, went to college
for four years, doesn't dig saloons and is happily married," he wrote.
"Do I have to sing
honky-tonk songs about
slippin' around and wear a rhinestone-studded cowboy suit to be real?"
Mr. Hamilton burst onto the national music scene in 1956 with the million-selling "
A Rose and a Baby Ruth," a
John Loudermilk-penned
song that rose to No. 6 on the all-genre Billboard Top 100 chart. He
scored two more Top 40 hits before becoming what "Definitive Country"
encyclopedia contributor Lesley-Anne
Peake called "the first pop artist to switch to country."
"This
was a radical move for an established pop singer, at a time when rock
'n' roll was at its height and many country stars were trying to 'go
pop,'"
Peake wrote.
For Mr. Hamilton, his 1959 entry into country music was a natural transition. He grew up in North Carolina, listening to "
Opry" stars
Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Jimmy Dickens and Eddy Arnold. He joined the "
Opry" himself in February 1960, and
Chet
Atkins signed him to RCA Victor as a country artist. He notched his
first Top 10 country hit in 1960, with "
Before This Day Ends," and
repeated that success with "
Three Steps to the Phone (Millions of
Miles)" and "
If You Don't Know I Ain't Gonna Tell You." But his biggest
hit came in 1963, with "
Abilene," a loping tribute to a Kansas town and a
four-week No. 1 country single.
Mr. Hamilton became infatuated
with folk singer-songwriters, and in 1965 he became the first American
recording artist to record a hit written by poetic Canadian songwriter
Gordon . His 1966 "
Steel Rail Blues" album featured songs penned by folk-leaning writers ,
Phil Ochs
and
John Hartford, and Mr. Hamilton became the most popular country
music singer in Canada. He hosted a Canadian television show for six
years and he recorded albums that crossed genres and borders. His 1967
version of "
Urge For Going" also made him the first artist to record a
song written by
Joni Mitchell.
"George is a student and a good listener," Gordon told
Deke
Dickerson, in a conversation recounted in the liner notes to the
three-disc Bear Family Records collection "George Hamilton IV: My North
Country Home." "He's just a kind, generous person. I just love the way
that George did all my songs."
Politics and religion
Mr.
Hamilton was the rare country star to actively support progressive
politicians in the 1960s, and his abiding Christian faith led was the
bedrock of his belief in civil rights and racial equality. In 1968, he
and wife
Tink attended Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy's speech at
Vanderbilt's Memorial Gym. Kennedy was late for the speech, and event organizer John
Seigenthaler asked Mr. Hamilton to entertain the assembled crowd.
"He said, 'Well, it just happens I have my guitar in my trunk,' "
Seigenthaler
told a Vanderbilt Hustler reporter. Mr. Hamilton played for 45 minutes,
and he considered "opening" for Kennedy a highlight of his musical
career. Mr. Hamilton's relaxed, literate songs took him across the
world. He toured extensively in Europe and studied the European roots
of Nashville-based country music. "This music we call American
country music had its cradle days in the British Isles," he told The
Tennessean in 2012. "It had its childhood in the Blue Ridge Mountains,
and it came of age in Nashville."
Mr. Hamilton played a starring
role in London's "International Festival of Country Music" in 1969, and
he and Bill Anderson helped persuade the Country Music Association to
present a Nashville version of that International Festival: The music
city festival came to be known as Fan Fair and is now branded as the CMA
Music Festival, Nashville's signature event. Mr. Hamilton also hosted
numerous BBC television series.
In 1973, Mr. Hamilton completed what
Peake
wrote was the "longest international concert tour in country music,"
performing 73 shows in three months. And in 1974, Mr. Hamilton became
the first country artist to perform behind the Iron Curtain, playing in
Czechoslovakia and in Russia. In the latter country, he lectured on the
history of country music.
Mr. Hamilton left the "
Opry"
for five years, beginning in 1971, and by the time of his 1976 return
he was known as country music's "International Ambassador." He was a
passionate advocate for country music, and for his deeply held faith,
frequently performing as part of Billy
Graham's Christian crusades.
Mr. Hamilton's final Top 40 country hit came in 1973, but he remained vital as a touring artist and "Grand Ole
Opry" attraction for the remainder of his years. In the new century, he often gave backstage tours at the
Opry, providing visitors with firsthand stories about long-gone "
Opry" stars Patsy Cline, Roy Acuff and Ernest
Tubb.
"It's been a real honor to have been associated with the
Opry for this period of time," he said in an official biography. "It's been my musical
homeplace
which I first started visiting as a teenager. Back then, I would
regularly catch a Greyhound bus from North Carolina and dream of
performing on the
Opry."
