Country Artist Don Helms

Helms was a featured musician on over 100 Hank Williams recordings and provided the high, piercing signature steel guitar sound on more than 100 Hank Williams songs and on 10 of his 11 number-one Country hits.

Helms played a double-neck 1948 Gibson Console Grande steel guitar, which lacked the foot pedals found on a more modern pedal steel guitar, which did not come into prominence in Country music until after Hank Williams’s death in 1953. He tuned the outside neck to A C# E G# B C# E G# (low to high), which he called E6, and the inside neck to F# A B D# F# A C# E, which he called B13. Almost all of Don’s classic leads were done on the E6 neck. He used the B13 neck for fills.

After Williams’s death, Helms went on to play on many classic Country hits, including Patsy Cline’s “Walkin’ After Midnight,” Stonewall Jackson’s “Waterloo,” the Louvin Brothers’ “Cash on the Barrelhead,” Lefty Frizzell’s “Long Black Veil” and Loretta Lynn’s “Blue Kentucky Girl.”

Helms also played for Hank Williams Jr. and wrote “The Ballad of Hank Williams” which he performed with Hank Jr. on The Pressure Is On LP released in 1981. In the song, Don jokingly refers to being fired by both Hank Sr. and Hank Jr. He also performed with Jett Williams, Hank Sr.’s daughter.