Biography
Born on 2 September 1929 in Taunton, Massachusetts, Daniel Ray Andrade picked up the guitar during his early years and joined a neighborhood ensemble. Success at regional talent contests earned him a regular 15-minute slot on WPEP Taunton under the name the Drifting Cowboy. Listener response brought sponsorship from The New Bedford Times, which placed him on a weekly program over WNBH. Later he moved to Texas and adopted the stage identity Hank The Drifter, a direct nod to his deep regard for Hank Williams. In that guise he performed on the Cowtown Jamboree in Fort Worth, Corns A Poppin’ in Houston, and the Big D Jamboree in Dallas. His admiration for Williams surfaced in original material, most notably the tribute numbers ‘Hank Williams Is Singing Again’ and ‘Hank Williams’ Ghost’. Through the 1980s he kept appearing at festivals, fairs, rodeos, and countless other stops stretching from Texas across the Midwest to the New England states. His sides first appeared on the New England label in Houston, with additional pressings issued by the Canadian firms Spartan and Quality. In 1980 the German company Cattle assembled an album drawn from those New England masters; the collection featured twelve songs written by Andrade, among them the two Williams tributes noted above.