Hank Snow Wanderin' On - The Best Of The Yodelling

Hank Snow 

Hank Snow represents the archetypal rise from marginal existence to iconic status—without romantic distortion: his career began with improvisation and calculated risk. At his 1936 audition for RCA Victor in Montreal, he simply claimed to have original songs—and wrote them overnight. Prisoned Cowboy and Lonesome Blue Yodel were technically simple, but sufficient to launch a recording career that would span more than six decades.

His formative years were defined not by comfort, but by hardship: escape from an abusive stepfather, work as a cabin boy in the North Atlantic, and musical socialization through records by Vernon Dalhart and Jimmie Rodgers. From this emerged a clearly identifiable style—most notably the blue yodel as a defining expressive element.

His early RCA Canada recordings achieved regional success but failed to penetrate the U.S. market. Only an external disruption—the 1948 recording ban by the American Federation of Musicians—led to the release of his Canadian masters in the United States. The decisive breakthrough followed in 1950 with I’m Moving On: 44 weeks on the charts, 21 of them at No. 1—a clear indicator of exceptional market impact.

The Bear Family Records® website documents this trajectory with high precision and provides one of the most reliable discographic and historical references available.

The long-term preservation of this cultural legacy is ensured by the Friends Of The Hank Snow Society. Their mandate: to promote traditional country music, operate a museum in Nova Scotia, and organize key events such as the Summer Festival and the Hank Snow Tribute Show—functioning as the institutional backbone of Hank Snow’s legacy.