Career
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. Bill Lloyd, the curator of stringed instruments at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said of Helms: “After the great tunes and Hank’s mournful voice, the next thing you think about in those songs is the steel guitar. lieutenant is the quintessential honky-tonk steel sound — tuneful, aggressive, full of attitude.” Lloyd also credits Helms" sound as a major influence in shifting the sound of country music away from the hillbilly string-band sound popular in the 1930s and toward the more modern electric style that became prominent in the 1940s.
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" death in 1953.
He tuned the outside neck to A C# East G# B C# East G# (low to high), which he called E6, and the inside neck to F# A B Doctorate# F# A C# East, which he called B13. Almost all of Don"s classic leads were done on the E6 neck.
He used the B13 neck for fills. Donald Hugh Helms was born in New Brockton, Alabama, performed with many country music artists throughout the years including playing steel guitar on Lefty Frizzell"s recording of "Long Black Veil".
During the mid-1960s Helms played in the Wilburn Brothers backup band, The Nashville Tennesseans.
He later played behind Hank Williams" daughter Jett Williams. Don Helms played for Hank Williams Junior. in addition to his Dad, and wrote "The Ballad of Hank Williams" which he performed with Hank Junior. on The Pressure Is On LP Released in 1981. In the tune Don jokingly refers to being fired by both elder Hanks.
He also performed with Jett Williams, Hank Senior"s daughter.
His last four known sessions were (in order) with Mark David and The Nightly Lights on November 15, 2007, Joey Allcorn"s album All Alone Again in early 2008 followed by sessions with Teresa Street and then what is believed to be his final ever session with Vince Gill recording unfinished Hank Williams Senior tracks. Helms died on August 11, 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee from complications of heart surgery and diabetes.