Luke the Drifer was a name used by Hank Williams for a persona he developed to record recitations (often called "talking songs" by country music fans). One apparent reason for this was to prevent confusion by fans who might think they were getting a tradtional song if they had purchased the same record under the "Hank Williams" artist name; it soon became known that all "Luke the Drifter" recordings were recitations, as Williams never recorded traditonal songs under that name. It is quite likely that some people never established the connection and realized that "Luke the Drifter" and "Hank Williams" were actually the same person, although devoted fans were certainly aware of this.