Arkansas Democrat Gazette Review

Publication:Arkansas Democrat-Gazette;

Date:Dec 16, 2008;

Section:Style;

Page Number:29

POP NOTES

Best new thing in country could be old (cowboy) hat

BY ELLIS WIDNER ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

What is arguably the best recording in country music released this year is 57 years old. Another contender is two new albums by an 81-year-old who was half of one of the most admired brother acts in country music history. The artists: Hank Williams and Charlie Louvin. Williams, whose short career — just six years — defined country music, injecting it with an emotional passion, an everyman sensibility, songs with spare and heartfelt lyrics and a psychic turbulence that moved from the heart to the barroom to the church. The writer of classics such as “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love With You),” “Cold, Cold Heart,” “Hey Good Lookin’” and others is so revered as a songwriter that Williams the singer has nearly been lost. No longer. The 54 songs on The Unreleased Recordings (three CDs, Time/Life, $39.98) reveal Williams to be a singer of rare interpretive gifts, who so thoroughly inhabits a song that whether he wrote it or not is almost irrelevant. His compelling performances make it clear, whether he wrote ’em or not, he owns them at that particular moment.

    These treasures are from a 15-minute radio show Williams performed in 1951 with his band, The Drifting Cowboys. The transcriptions contain 143 songs and were thought lost, acquiring an aura of a sort of musical holy grail. But what was lost was found, and after several years of legal negotiations, we have this astounding boxed set, which is rich and historic, yet wonderfully alive and vital.

    As with Bob Wills’ wondrous Tiffany Transcriptions (which are to be reissued in a 10-CD boxed set Jan. 27 by Collectors’ Choice), these are casual recordings that reveal a charming playfulness in Williams’ personality and a captivating, spontaneous musicality.

    In this relaxed setting, Williams’ phrasing is edgier, more personal than his studio work. Unreleased offers the most revealing look at Williams the singer since the Country Music Foundation began issuing Williams’ demos in 1990 — Just Me and My Guitar and The First Recordings, which were combined on CD as Rare Demos: First to Last in 2000.

    Unreleased shows Williams’ sense of humor, displayed in his introduction of “Hey, Good Lookin’” during which he slips in the sponsor’s name (Mother’s Best Flour) into the lyric and adds “Well, I ain’t good lookin’, but I’m gonna start cookin’,” and does just that as he and the band break into the song.

    Another enjoyable segment is his talk with the band members about learning “On Top of Old Smoky” from his grandmother, and he and the band perform a slower, compelling take of the song popularized by Burl Ives in 1949 and The Weavers in 1951.

    While Williams plays a number of his own songs, most of the tunes are by other writers. There’s Fred Rose’s “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain,” a careerdefining hit for Willie Nelson; the exquisite “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You,” written by Scotty Wiseman and a huge hit for cowboy singers Tex Ritter and Gene Autry; and gospel classics such as Thomas A. Dorsey’s “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” plus “Dust on the Bible” and “I’ll Fly Away.”

    But the best track? It just may be his cover of the Sons of the Pioneers’ hit “Cool Water,” a Bob Nolan song that has been sung around many a campfire, but rarely with the depth Williams brings to it. His desolate voice embodies the song’s loneliness and amplifies its spiritual/ psychological metaphors.

    Williams and the Drifting Cowboys are wonderfully spontaneous here; the story goes that band members often played songs that hadn’t been rehearsed, and usually with no set list. But if the band is caught off-guard by Williams (Bob Wills used to “call” the Texas Playboys’ sets on the fly), the players show a striking confidence in their skills.

    Thanks to The Unreleased Recordings, country fans should hopefully discover, or rediscover Williams as a singer of rare interpretive gifts. This boxed set brings new depth and perspective to our understanding of Hank Williams the artist, and the human being.

Countrywire.com Review

Perhaps the greatest classic country discovery to date Hank Williams - The Unreleased Recordings (Time Life) 4 1/2 stars (out of 5 stars) Reviewed: Dec. 16, 2008

Review by Andy Argyrakis So many posthumous projects are released by unauthorized outlets as bootlegs or with such poor sound quality they're not even worth purchasing. Not only does Hank Williams' brand new box set The Unreleased Recordings (Time Life) come with full approval from his estate, but it boasts fifty-four tracks in fairly high quality sound that was especially impressive for the retro time frame. The performances come from various 1951WSM radio shows, including several alternative versions of ultra famous hits, plus songs that have never seen the light of day until now. In the former category, "Hey, Good Lookin'," "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" sound stellar with a little extra southern fried passion brewing during these broadcasts. And as would be expected, Williams' unmistakable voice is always overflowing with a charming drawl that's rubbed off on nearly every one the style's current stars to some degree. But perhaps even more intriguing to die-hard fans are tunes being heard for the very first time since originally airing, including "Cool Water," "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" and "Cherokee Boogie." Though many troubadour's b-sides are generally best left on the shelf, Williams' charming signing and emotive lyrical interpretations are just as superb on these obscure selections as they are during more commercial material. Beyond the musical content packed within the project, there's also a handsome book loaded with extensive biographical notes and stories behind each song. There are also countless photos from the family's personal achieve, helping pinpoint the historical nature of this set all the more effectively. In fact, the collection as a whole is such a prize for die-hard fans that it genuinely lives up to its advertising slogan of the "greatest discovery ever" when it comes to classic country music.

From Dallasmusic.com

New from Time Life -
   Hank Williams:  The Unreleased Recordings

      Imagine that it's 7:15 a.m. in January 1951.  People are cooking biscuits, milking cows, driving to work or doing whatever they did on a daily basis, and they're treated to a fifteen minute radio show starring Hank Williams.  He sang songs he never recorded.  He sang his own hits and other people's hits.  He talked about his favorite songs, where he had been, and where he was going.  Whatever came into his head.  It was kind of like having him join you at your breakfast table for a good visit and a little pickin' and singin'. 
        If you weren't tuned in to WSM radio between 7:15 and 7:30 back then you would never have heard these recordings, and if you were you finally have a chance to hear them again.  They're guaranteed to take you right back to that simpler time.
        As the story goes WSM radio was purging  its library of unusable material which included 72 shows featuring Hank Williams.  It was decided that the only owner of these shows was the estate of Hank Williams: Hank's children Hank Jr. and Jett Williams.  They, with the help of  Time Life have released them to the public unaltered, undubbed and beautifully restored.  The compilation comes beautifully packaged with a forty page book telling the whole story and a little about the history of  each of the 53 tracks.  Along with the interesting stories the book offers a pictoral history which helps tell the story of the legend of country music's first superstar.  This a must for any collector and would make a perfect gift for the holiday season.  Don't forget to pick one up for yourself as well. 

Hank #2 Rolling Stone Reissue

Hank Blog Critics Review

"The Unreleased Recordings is a bit of a godsend. Like reading Virginia Woolf’s diaries or seeing the metamorphosis of Jackson Pollock through exhibit, this collection serves to help complete the picture of a human being we can never know too much about. The songs come from radio station WSM in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1951, Hank Williams stopped by every so often to record 15-minute segments that were then played early in the morning. He sang some of his own songs and covered many of his personal favorites. His backing bands and singers were always top-notch. Best of all, the quality is exceptional. WSM clearly knew to take care of these acetates and the transfer to digital could not be better. Taken together, these factors add up to a perfect treasure. This is a collection for the obsessive, the skeptic, and even the novice, who will feel grateful rather than overwhelmed that there are a full three discs worth of material to plunder."

Link to Original Article

Hank performs ten Roy Acuff covers on the Unreleased Recordings

by Brian Turpen

It is pretty well known that Hank had high regard and respect for Roy Acuff. In fact, on his shows during his early years, Hank was known to often sing songs by his idol. Hank is also known to have stated, “I was a pretty good imitator of Roy Acuff, but then I found out they already had a Roy Acuff, so I started singin’ like myself.” Even though Hank may have stopped trying to sing like Acuff, he didn’t stop singing songs Acuff had recorded. On the surviving Mother’s Best shows, there are many examples of Hank reviving Acuff’s tunes, or tunes associated with Acuff.

Time-Life’s compilation, Hank Williams, the Unreleased Recordings, includes 54 songs from the 72 surviving Mother’s Best shows, and 10 of those are associated with Acuff. Clearly, Hank’s respect for Acuff was still high even though his star had long eclipsed his idol’s. Hank gladly acknowledged his roots on the Mother’s Best shows, and no one influenced him more than Roy Acuff. The ten songs associated with Acuff or previously recorded by Acuff were Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain, Low And Lonely, Drifting Too Far From The Shore, The Prodigal Son, Searching For A Soldier’s Grave, Pins & Needles, Wait For The Light To Shine, The Pale Horse & His Rider, The Great Judgment Morning, and Thy Burdens Are Greater Than Mine. The latter has a slightly different story because it appears as though Hank demo’d the song on behalf of its writers for Acuff. It is thought that Hank did this as a favor to his producer/ music publisher, Fred Rose, and the song’s composers, Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart. Rose pitched the song to Acuff, who recorded it in September 1951.

Although these ten songs may have been put on disc by Acuff, one can tell that Hank didn’t just do covers of the song for his morning radio show. As one will notice when listening, Hank put his own indelible mark on his versions.

Latest Hank Online Reviews

Few artists lay claim to places in history like Hank Williams. He sits among the elite who pioneered not just a genre or style, but the music of an entire nation. Williams shares his lofty perch with the likes of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, The Beatles, Bill Monroe, Bob Wills, Jimi Hendrix, and Robert Johnson. You don’t often see Bird and Wills listed in the same sentence, but there you go.

With songs of loneliness and heartache, Hank Williams influenced the entirety of American songwriting. His work sits as a crucial link in the evolution of American music, marrying the traditions of western swing, bluegrass, and gospel. His style would pave way for the early rock n’ roll giants Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley, among others. More recently, his influence can be found in the alternative-country and folk worlds with artists like Gillian Welch, Ryan Adams, Darrell Scott, and Lyle Lovett.

Read more at Muzik Review

Hank Williams wasn't around very long to enjoy the spotlight, as he didn't come to the public's attention in a big way until 1949 and was dead four years later, so there has never been a huge library of his recordings available for fans to listen too. However, back in 1950-51 he recorded a series of radio shows that were sponsored by Mother's Best Flour, and because of his extensive touring schedule he was forced to pre-record the shows on acetate discs. It's these recordings that Time Life have used as the source for their new release Hank Williams: The Unreleased Recordings. The three CDs come handsomely packaged in a tall hard cover package that opens like a book. On the inside front cover are the first two CDs, followed by thirty-eight pages of photographs and text giving the history of the recordings and Williams' biography, with the third disc on the inside of the back cover.

Read more at Leap In The Dark

Hank treats his audience to many popular tunes such as “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You,” “When The Saints Go Marching In,” and “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain.” A song or two of his studio work has traces of what will become rock ‘n’ roll. Listen to the lyrics again to “Hey, Good Looking;” you got hot rods, soda, and dancing dates. He’s only a few steps away from truly being the granddaddy of rockabilly. Check out “Cherokee Boogie,” “California Zephyr” and “a little masterpiece of nonsense,” as Hank introduces it, titled “Mind Your Own Business” with its added edgy verse about getting knocked around by the missus.

Read More at The Masked Music Snobs Bullpen

Hank Williams Blogcritics Review

Nearly sixty years have gone by since the world lost Hank Williams Sr. yet his haunting voice and music continue to tug at our souls and pull us into the dark night of his own, expressed in his songs and the way he delivered them. Time Life has finally put out The Unreleased Recordings of Hank Williams. These recordings, drawn from remaining acetates cut in 1951 for his fifteen-minute radio show sponsored by Mother’s Best Flour on WSM Nashville, were to air while he was on the road touring and unable to make the 7:15am start time Monday through Friday. These 54 offerings of Hank’s heart show a different side of the man and allow us to see a bit further into his tragically short life.

Read the rest here

New York Times Article on The Unreleased Recordings

HANK WILLIAMS, ‘THE UNRELEASED RECORDINGS’

Many of Hank Williams’s studio records were nearly perfect, and his voice-and-guitar demos have a trudging, spooky power. But this is something new: three hours’ worth of radio performances with his band, recorded for 15-minute spots on the Nashville station WSM in 1951, at Williams’s commercial peak and before his health turned. (About a year later he would be dead.) Upbeat, he calls out to soloists in his band with satisfaction and pours himself into the performance. His wife Audrey, talentless at singing, is not here: a big plus. The repertory forms a trustworthy picture of his sound world: not just his own songs but white and black gospel, cowboy tunes, obscure contemporary nothings (“You Blotted My Happy Schooldays”), a weirdly breathtaking “On Top of Old Smoky.” And his voice! These recordings get the fullness and breadth of it, the cool, plummy croon turning to a hot laser through some trick of throat and nose. Truly one of the best records ever. (Time-Life, three CDs, $39.98.) BEN RATLIFF

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/arts/music/2008holidayboxe.html

New York Times proclaims "ONE OF THE BEST RECORDS EVER."

Yes, it's true.  

The article will be posted shortly.

Here's  a nice review from a British publication in the interim. 

Muzik Review

Highlights from the first disc include renditions of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”, “Hey Good Lookin’”, and “On Top of Old Smoky”. The recordings themselves are tastefully restored, capturing the warmth of Hank’s voice, and the delicate balance of these live performances.

The second disc opens with his classic “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You)”. It goes on to feature his original “California Zephyr”, along with quite a few gospel classics. On the third disc, Hank does his interpretation of Albert Brumley’s “I’ll Fly Away”, a version of that tune can be heard on the acclaimed soundtrack to the film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. The upbeat “Mind Your Own Business”, and one of the great under-rated ballads, “There’s Nothing As Sweet As My Baby” take center stage on this final set. Ominously, the set closes with “The Pale Horse and His Rider”.

Read the rest here

Hank Williams Pittsburgh Hear and Now: Believe Your Ears

Podcast about The Unreleased Recordings from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Listen to get to the Hank piece.

The Post-Gazette podcast:

Pittsburgh Hear and Now: Believe Your Ears

Peter King talks with Marty Ashby about "An Evening of Pittsburgh-Inspired Brazilian Jazz" with Ivan Lins Friday night at Heinz Hall (0-12:17). Plus, Rich Kienzle reviews a new 3-CD set of Hank Williams Sr.'s unreleased radio shows (12:17-19:30). (Total time: 19:30)

http://media.post-gazette.com/podcasts/20081111bye.mp3

Hank Williams BlogCritics Review

"For the longest time I could never understand how anybody could like country music. The problem was that it took me nearly forever to realize there was a huge difference between the music that's performed by people like Shania Twain, and country music. Growing up in urban centers, the only type of country music I heard for the longest time was the former. Someone must have decided that city audiences were too sophisticated to want to hear any of the old time, or more traditionally styled, examples of the genre.

Not having any incentive to search out country music, it took a series of accidents for me to stumble across the good stuff: walking into a record store and hearing my first Graham Parsons duet with Emmylou Harris, listening to my brother's Jerry Jeff Walker and Kris Kristofferson albums, and learning about Hank Williams by hearing a guy named Sneezy Waters singing his music."

Read the BlogCritics Review Here

Hank Advocate Review

Read it here

Creative Loafing Review

CL's holiday guide to the best box sets and free music downloads
Hank Williams
The Unreleased Recordings
Time Life
$39.98
The Lonesome Highway just got a bit more populated. These 54 songs spread over three discs are one of the major finds in any style of music, but for country and western fans, they are essential. Hank Williams recorded these tunes in 1951 on cheap acetates to be played on his morning WSM radio slot while he was on the road. They sat collecting dust for decades and were nearly destroyed. An alert station employee retrieved them from a Dumpster, setting the stage for this and future boxes, which will be released next year. The sound has been restored and is now as vibrant as nearly anything in the existing Williams catalog. The set features a 40-page book with detailed track-by-track notes, explaining where and when Williams was first exposed to some of the gospel and folk covers he performs here for the only time on disc. Indispensable.
-- Hal Horowitz

Washington Square Review

“Mama taught me to boogie,” Hank Williams Jr., sang at John McCain’s private election party in Phoenix, Ariz., last Tuesday. He stumbled awkwardly around a stage that was far too big for him, with a guitar that was far too out of tune and a beard that desperately needed a trim. If Williams wanted to learn how to boogie, he should have been listening to the records of his father, Hank Williams Sr.

It is because of performers like Hank Williams Jr. that country music has become a cliché — overweight Southern Republicans singing about whiskey, shooting their women and loving their mamas. Funny that the progenitor of country music, Hank Williams Sr., never once gave into one of these clichés. “The Unreleased Recordings,” a new three-disc box set collection of his “Mother’s Best Flour” radio appearances sponsored from 1951, offer the best glimpse of his genius and contemporary country’s relative unimportance.

Read there rest at Washington Square

9513 Country Music Review

The fifteen-disc bootleg of the so-called “Mother’s Best Flour Show” recordings has been floating around the internet for nearly a decade now, while numerous lawsuits were duked out by Hank Jr. and his half-sister Jett (the daughter Hank Sr. never knew) as the Williams estate tried to establish sole ownership of the recordings. Although the bootleg collection has a far greater quantity—if not quality—of songs, it’s hard to go wrong with this three disc set, which contains 54 of the 143 songs that Time Life plans to release in the next three years.

The Mother’s Best recordings were a series of approximately seventy radio shows, prerecorded in 1951 for early morning radio play on WSM 650. According to Colin Escott, Williams’ most in-depth biographer, in addition to the intro singing of “Lovesick Blues,” each fifteen-minute show included a secular song, a gospel number, an instrumental, and two pitches for Mother’s Best flour done by WSM announcer Louie Buck. The shows themselves were recorded on notoriously fragile acetate discs, but most—if not all—of them survived after being rescued from the trash by a WSM employee in 1979.

Read the rest here

Sonic Boomers Review

It should go without saying that Hank Williams was a genius. An absolute master. What Miles Davis is to jazz. What Bob Dylan is to songwriting. What Bruce Springsteen is to live performance. Hank Williams dominated country music in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s with songwriting and live performance that eclipsed everyone in his path. His voice is a marvel. He drew out notes until they broke. He never shied from the emotion of the moment and he milked every tear he could. And he did it without trivializing the content. Whether it was his publisher/editor Fred Rose -- the Maxwell Perkins to Williams’ Thomas Wolfe -- who helped distill his essence or not, Williams issued in six short years a catalog as dense and rich as any performer we’ve come to accept for their excellence. He never recorded a concept album, but his whole goddamn life was a concept, a massive collision course with alcoholism, drug abuse, chronic back pain and wild, wild women. When he sang “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” no one could question his authority.

The Unreleased Recordings is a welcome glimpse into the world that Hank Williams professionally occupied. These 54 performances over three CDs were recorded in 1951 for Nashville’s WSM-AM morning radio program. Fortunately, Williams was spared an early wake-up call and the 7:15 performances were pre-recorded to lacquered discs that were luckily preserved back in the 1980s, since someone had the common sense to realize that these might be of historical and musical interest someday. The music business doesn’t always get it wrong, but it did take, what, over two decades to get this material into our hands. But let us not complain about the slow cogs of industry. Let us praise what has now been given over to us for our reflection.

Read the rest at Sonic Boomers

A Hank Williams Journal

Hank blogger John Waugh has been running a Hank blog called A Hank Williams Journal.  

Very insightful, please check it out.   

Hank NJ Star-Ledger

Country's long-buried treasures
by Star-Ledger Staff
Friday October 31, 2008, 12:03 PM

A PIONEER'S LIVE LEGACY "The Unreleased Recordings" Hank Williams (Time Life)
The world's fund of miracles might seem to have been spent long ago, but the discovery of a cache of long-unheard recordings by Hank Williams constitutes a blessed event for fans of the King of Country Music. After years of legal wrangling, the Williams estate has made available a treasure trove -- a three-CD boxed set of clarion-clear live recordings he made for the Mother's Best flour company, originally broadcast across the South via Nashville's WSM in 1951, when he was at the peak of his career.

Williams' honky-tonk poetry ranks with the art of Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, Billie Holiday and Elvis Presley as definitive Americana, so this find carries serious cultural weight. This 54-song set of the "Mother's Best" performances -- ideally produced and annotated by Williams biographer Colin Escott -- features original tunes, white-gospel hymns, old-timey ballads and country covers not found among his MGM studio sessions. And unlike with his other live recordings, the sound here rivals that of his studio releases. Williams' pining voice rings out with spine-tingling fidelity over the steel guitar and fiddle of his Drifting Cowboys.

The highlights include a great version of Fred Rose's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain." Williams makes it a far sadder song than Willie Nelson would on his hit version decades later, with even the Hawaiian-sounding steel guitars unable to buoy the hard ache of Williams' vocal. He also takes pride in taking "On Top of Old Smoky" -- a bizarrely upbeat folk-pop hit at that time for the Weavers -- back to its lamenting roots.

"There's an old song going around here that's one of the top pop tunes in the nation that my grandmother taught me, one of the first songs I ever remember singing," Williams says. "They don't sing it now like the way she taught me, but I'm going to get the boys to see if we can sing it like the old-timers." Abetted by country-boy harmonies, he keeps "On Top of Old Smoky" more in line with the lonely-heart words -- "I lost my love by courting too slow."

The performances have hootenanny feel, with Williams assuming that most folks would be listening to the early-morning broadcasts while they were at work or doing chores. That helps lend a warmth and ease to such classics as "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and "Cold, Cold Heart," with the latter a hit in 1951 not only for Williams but in a cover by Tony Bennett (which thrilled the country singer).

Most songs include the priceless atmosphere down-home Alabama intros. Prefacing "If I Didn't Love You (I Wouldn't Be Lonesome)," he says, "I never have sung this song on the air, but I'm fixing to attempt it, or do something to it." He describes "Mind Your Own Business" (a variation of "Move It on Over") as "a masterpiece of nonsense," and most songs end with good-time shouts from the radio-studio collective. He dedicates "There's Nothing as Sweet as My Baby" to his 18-month-old son, Hank Jr., using the tyke's nickname when he says, "ain't nothing as sweet as Bocephus."

Williams, who would die of a drug overdose at age 29 in 1953, kept his honky-tonk side mostly in check for the sponsor, although there is an especially jaunty "Hey, Good Lookin'." He favors morbid Anglo-Appalachian folk ballads (including "Lonely Tombs") and such moody hymns as "Gathering Flowers for the Master's Bouquet." The set may have too much lachrymose Victorian religiosity for some tastes, but that was his Southern inheritance. He introduces "Pictures from Life's Other Side" by calling it "a song I've been hearing all my life."

Yet it's wonderful to hear Williams sing a rousing "When the Saints Come Marchin' In." And we get to hear such sublimely sad originals as "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love With You)" fresh from his pen. He finishes that song by telling the radio host, "that's a brand-spanking new one ... ain't nobody heard that one but me, you and the folks that just listened."

Download this: "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain"

Nashville The City Paper

Numerous anthologies and boxed sets have spotlighted Hank Williams’ incomparable compositions and recordings. But an amazing new three-disc package The Unreleased Recordings (Time Life) unveils numbers even many hardcore country collectors never knew existed.

The set contains 54 previously unreleased songs made when Williams was at his peak as a performer. These were cut in 1951, the year he became one of America's greatest stars. Tony Bennett's cover of "Cold, Cold Heart" was a pop sensation and eventually became the number one song in the country. It was so appealing and popular many others wanted to put their stamp on it, and subsequently Louis Armstrong, Diana Washington and Perry Como covered the song.

Read the rest here

Philadelphia Inquirer Review

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Hank Williams

The Unreleased Recordings

(Time Life ****)

To call this a major historical find is an understatement. Fifty-seven years after they were recorded, and nearly three after his estate was ruled the rightful owner, these astonishing Hank Williams recordings are hitting the market in their original form for the first time.

Williams and his Drifting Cowboys cut this music in 1951 for their morning radio show on Nashville's WSM. Usually they performed live, but they had to prerecord shows that could air while they were on the road.

Remarkably clear and with no overdubs, these tracks offer a complete picture of Williams as he ranges from stark, despairing ballads to uplifting gospel rave-ups, using his own hits, numbers by others, and - most interesting - songs he never formally recorded. He offers spoken introductions in several places, and vigorous harmonies by his band members add to the energy level and live, spontaneous feel. In at least one instance Williams adds different lyrics to one of his older hits, 1949's "Mind Your Own Business," providing another hint of his turbulent home life: "If I get my head beat black and blue / That's my wife and my stove wood, too."

- Nick Cristiano

Hank Publicity Updates

-The online home for GQ magazine, Men.Style.com, is going to include Hank’s project in their holiday gift guide that should be online soon.

-An interview is set with Jett Williams for Parade Magazine

Hank Promotions Country Aircheck

"Hanks For The Swag: Time Life is offering a variety of promotions to Classic Country and Country stations in support of its Hank Williams: The Unreleased Recordings set. Available as a three-disc box, as well as a single 16-track disc, the collection can be at the center of promotions including a Hank Williams Weekend, an E-blast or contest promotion and a Happy Hanksgiving campaign." 

Hank AP Story

"It's very intimate," Jett Williams, a 55-year-old country singer, said recently. "It's like he came over to your house and he's saying, `Let me tell you about this song I just wrote.'

"It's interesting because it's live, and you hear him make a mistake or the band make a mistake and you get to hear how he handles it," she added. "You hear him tell jokes and how quick his wit is."

Read th rest  here on Yahoo

Hank Clip on Youtube Front Page Today

If you were on youtube.com today, you may have noticed the Hank clip featured.  See picture here.  

 

The Unreleased Recordings Digital EP

If you haven't heard The Unreleased Recordings, don't forget that you can get a taste of the 3 CD set by downloading the 5 tracks below for only $4.95.

Hank Charts

Great news!

Hank Williams The Unreleased Recordings debuted #42 on the Country Charts. The major publications are raving about this release. Please see the attachment for a full list of the latest press quotes.

Attachment

About.com Review

Snippet:
This three disc collection is a must-have item for any Hank Williams fan, or for any fan of Country Music. The quality of these recordings is outstanding and the included booklet of information is also worthy of praise. Not only do you get to hear the songs, but you can also read background information for each one of them. The songs in this collection were taken from previous unreleased performances on the "Mother's Best" program and are also part of a Time Life series with more to come.

Read the rest here

The Tennessean Feature

The Unreleased Recordings' offer glimpses of Hank Williams

By Peter Cooper • THE TENNESSEAN • October 26, 2008

In early 1981, 26-year-old Alan Stoker applied soap and water to some lacquer-coated, 16-inch aluminum discs.
And then three decades fell away, as Stoker transferred the material on the discs to reel-to-reel tape. Country music's most famous voice — a voice that had been silenced at age 29, somewhere on a dark road north of Knoxville and south of Oak Hill, W.Va. — burst through speakers and filled the room.
There, inside the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Music Row, Stoker raised the hillbilly Atlantis, in the form of Hank Williams' "Mother's Best" recordings.
"I had in my mind this image of Hank Williams as a great singer and songwriter, but also as a dark and morose person," said Stoker, now the recorded-sound and moving-image curator at the hall, which moved downtown in 2001. "But on these recordings, which I had never heard before, I was struck by the warmth of his voice and the apparent warmth of his personality. He had a great laugh."
More than a quarter-century later, and more than 50 years since Williams and his Drifting Cowboys recorded radio shows sponsored by Mother's Best Flour and aired on WSM-AM 650, listeners can hear what Stoker heard in 1981. Williams' 143 performances were recorded onto "acetates," which are discs meant to be played only a few times. After airing, the acetates were bound for the WSM Dumpster but were rescued by photographer Les Leverett. The shutterbug held on to the acetates for many years, though Hall of Fame acquisitions director Bob Pinson talked Leverett into bringing them in so that Stoker could do a transfer in 1981.
A record company attempted to release the recordings, complete with overdubbed instruments, but the Williams estate — daughter Jett Williams and son Hank Williams Jr. — fought an eight-year court battle to secure the rights. In 2006, Tennessee's Court of Appeals ruled that the estate owned the performances. Jett Williams and husband/lawyer F. Keith Adkinson negotiated a deal with Time Life, and soon Stoker was back at work. This time, he was "baking" the reels to remove moisture, then transferring the reels onto a computer hard drive.
"Some people assume that since these were recorded in 1951, that they'll sound grainy," Jett Williams said. "But the recordings are fabulous, and it actually sounds better than his master recordings for MGM. It's not some old, scratchy radio show. It sounds like he's in your living room, singing to you."
He was not, of course, in a living room. He was at WSM's Nashville studio, pre-recording shows with his Drifting Cowboys since their touring schedule in 1951 didn't allow them to be in Nashville enough to cut the daily live shows. The shows were cut live to acetate, though, without fixes or massaging.
"He's singing live, like his life depended on it," Jett Williams said. "You can hear people move, or clear their throats. And you also hear him talk and tell jokes. My father died very young, and I didn't know him. So here, I hear his wit and his personality. For me, I get a chance to meet my daddy, and to hear the real human being who was Hank Williams."
The first 54 Mother's Best performances will be released to retail stores on Tuesday, in a three-disc set called Hank Williams: The Unreleased Recordings. The other 89 songs will be released over the next three years. The initial set includes live versions of hits such as "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love With You)" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," and obscurities like "You Blotted My Happy Schooldays" and "When the Fire Comes Down."
To Rolling Stone's David Fricke, The Unreleased Recordings — Hank Williams at the peak of his powers, transported, soaped, baked, litigated and transformed into the new digital century — are "as electrifying as Johnny Cash's '60s prison shows or Bob Dylan's early acoustic concerts." For his children, for a Hall of Fame curator and for those who care about such things, it's a smile from the grave.
Peter Cooper

New York Daily News Review

New York Daily News, 10/28/2008

By DAVID HINCKLEY

Once upon a time, artists the stature of Hank Williams sang live all the time on the radio.

Pop stars up to the level of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby did that, too. But it was particularly prevalent for blues, gospel and country singers, who used 15-minute live radio shows to keep their music in front of their fans.

The frustrating part 50-60 years later is that the live broadcast often was the only time it was heard.

Where transcriptions existed, sadly, almost all have been destroyed or lost.

That’s why a new Time-Life collection of live Hank Williams recordings is such a gift.

The three-CD set, available today, includes 54 performances by Williams on the Mother’s Best Flour show heard in 1951 over WSM in Nashville. Dozens of these songs he never recorded elsewhere, which is also true of the 89 additional songs coming over the next three years.

Bootlegs of Mother’s Best shows have circulated for years, as have some recordings of Hank’s earlier “Health & Happiness” radio shows. But a legal release is easier to find, with much better sound.

Most important, hearing “I’ll Fly Away” or “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” or “Softly and Tenderly” is like Hank coming back and cutting whole new albums.

As was his habit, the live versions of hits like “I Can’t Help It” or “Wedding Bells” don’t sound radically different from the recordings. Still, they have different nuances and some great touches.

The general template for the radio show was a country song, an instrumental and a gospel song, so there’s a lot of gospel here. Standards like “From Jerusalem to Jericho,” “Dust on the Bible” and “When the Saints Go Marching In” are pure Williams, exuberant and all his own.

A couple of songs are oddities, like the obscure, dark “You Blotted My Happy Schooldays.” Hank loved dark and maudlin.

A particular gem for fans is “On Top of Old Smokey,” which he prefaces by saying he’ll do it in traditional mountain style – a reference to the string-drenched pop hit version then on the charts by the Weavers.

The one thing missing here is more of that banter – that is, the complete radio shows.

Time-Life figured, correctly, that most listeners would prefer getting more music. But Reader’s Digest is issuing a fourth CD that includes three complete radio shows, and who knows? Maybe someday more of them will come out (legally).

Meanwhile, there’s nothing here not to love.

Hank Quotes

Please click here to see what the press is saying about Hank!

Snippets:

Rolling Stone – “But the 54 performances in this three-CD set pack a magical, concentrated immediacy that is, in its time and way, as electrifying as Johnny Cash's Sixties prison shows or Bob Dylan's early acoustic concerts.” – David Fricke

Tennessean – “Hank Williams at the peak of his powers, transported, soaped, baked, litigated and transformed into the new digital century.” – Peter Cooper

Newsweek – “The recordings are so clear and intimate, you can hear Williams, then 27, chide his band members (known as the Drifting Cowboys) for hitting bum notes and joke about how he’s ‘wrote so many songs with the same tune,’ he forgot ‘which a one’ he’s signing.” – Lorraine Ali

Nashville Skyline Column

NASHVILLE SKYLINE: Hank Williams: Songs Are the Measure of a Man
New Boxed Set of Unreleased Recordings Is a Modern Landmark
October 30, 2008; Written by Chet Flippo

Nashville Skyline
(NASHVILLE SKYLINE is a column by CMT/CMT.com Editorial Director Chet Flippo.)

Songs are the measure of a man. And with the new Hank Williams CD set you can hear the man in the songs.

Williams was country's first superstar and deservedly so. His music lives on because it was what made him a superstar. It was not publicity's glare or intensive hype or celebrity friends or any other kind of flash that made you know who he was. He wrote and sang solid music that stopped you dead in your tracks when you heard it.

Hank Williams understood more than he knew. You can hear it in his songwriting and also in his song selection. He said things in his own songs that he could never say in real life. And he seemed to seek out larger truths in selecting compositions by other writers. As far as I can tell from researching and writing a biography of Williams, picking others' songs went against his grain because his ego called for him to record only his own songs insofar as far as he could. But, especially early on in his career he built up a repertoire of many and varied works.

You can hear many of those in the new boxed set, Hank: Unreleased Recordings (released Oct. 28), which I think is one of the most important recorded music projects in recent years. Why? Well, it can introduce a new generation to the architect of modern country music that Hank Williams was. It can display much of Hank's back-story, the music that got him to the point that he became country's first true superstar and legend-to-be. All by the time that he flamed out at age 29. And it can, through this glimpse of Hank, give us an accurate glimpse of what popular American country music really was in the 1940s and 1950s.

These recordings were made for an early-morning show on Nashville radio station WSM mainly in 1951. The sponsor was Mother's Best Flour. The shows were usually recorded because Williams was on the road throughout the week. That these shows were recorded on fragile acetate disks for later broadcast is the only reason they have been preserved at all. The acetates were later discarded by the radio station, which was pretty much standard practice in those days. Fortunately, someone rescued them from the trash bin and held onto them for years and they now can be heard by all of us.

Of the songs included in those radio shows, we will never fully know the extent to which Williams' alter ego, Fred Rose, figured in his selection process. Rose was Williams' song collaborator, de facto record producer, and father figure. He was a successful Tin Pan Alley songwriter long before he moved to Nashville and launched Acuff-Rose Music in 1942. It was country music's first song publishing house. It later took on other roles for its artists and songwriters. In Hank's case, Acuff-Rose filled the roles of publisher, manager, producer, co-writer, booking agent and accountant.

Unfortunately for history, Fred Rose left no journals or other written accounts of his work with Williams. Rose was much more sophisticated musically than was Williams, who also admittedly bought songs from writers he ran across -- standard practice in those days. But we can tell that Williams' song selection for his radio shows was much broader than his choices for his recordings.

Williams' listening habits were pretty wide for a country boy born in 1923 into poverty in Alabama. The songs he picked for his radio shows ranged far beyond what you might imagine he listened to. As a child in rural Alabama, his musical sources were limited to AM radio, old Southern folk songs sung locally, the rare phonograph recording, live church music, a street singer like Tee-Tot who taught him much and religious tent revivals. Songs that stayed with him ranged from the old folk standard "On Top of Old Smoky" to the gospel song "I'll Fly Away" to a weeper such as "The Blind Child's Lament" and even "When the Saints Go Marching In."

The 54 songs included here range widely across the spectrum, from traditional Southern gospel to Hank originals, from Appalachian ballads to a Western standard, from honky-tonk to cob-webby ancient tunes. They all share Hank Williams' formula for musical success: total emotional commitment to the song. If he couldn't identify with the song himself, Hank Williams could never sell it to anyone else and he well knew that.

I have enjoyed discussing these recordings with Hank's daughter Jett, who is very eloquent as a spokesperson for her father's legacy. Jett has spent much of her adult life in court, first establishing her identity as Hank Williams' daughter and then in recovering these lost recordings and making them available for the public to hear. She never got to meet her father, which makes these recordings especially poignant to her. "I finally heard my father laugh," she said. "I heard him as he was, as a man." On his radio shows, he discussed the songs and told corny jokes and displayed his human side.

For the greater listening audience, all of this means that you can hear one of America's most significant music figures at the height of his powers, playing and singing the music that he really liked and treasured personally. Not the music that he felt he should record professionally for Hank Williams, the big star. This is the music that Hank Williams, born Hiram King Williams in Mount Olive West, Ala., wanted to play and sing when he was just out there with his people.

Profiling a song from The Unreleased Recordings: California Zephyr

By Hank researcher Brian Turpen

 

            A song that Hank wrote, but never recorded commercially, “California Zephyr” was first discovered among demo recordings that Hank left with his music publisher, Acuff-Rose. It was only a vocal-guitar demo, and Acuff-Rose registered the song with the Library of Congress on December 30, 1955, almost two years after Hank’s death. The demo was overdubbed and released as MGM 12185 in February of 1956. A legit full band recording had never been heard until now.

            It is believed that Hank wrote “California Zephyr” sometime around August or September 1951. His buddy, Hank Snow, was in the charts with train songs like “Golden Rocket,” and Hank himself had scored a hit with another train song, “Pan American,” earlier in his career, so he probably thought the moment was ripe for “California Zephyr.” On his Mother’s Best radio show (issued on The Unreleased Recordings), Hank introduced the song by saying, “wrote this here a few days ago, a new song called, ‘The California Zephyr.’ Let’s ride, all aboard …” He sings it with his full band, and it’s a truly fabulous performance. 

            What many may not know is that the song was written about an actual train. In fact, the song opens a window onto an era when cross-country travel was usually by train rather than by airplane, bus, or car. That said, Hank’s lyrics weren’t entirely accurate (the train was operated by Western Pacific not Union Pacific) and Hank got the itinerary wrong.  

 

            This is the story of the real train called the California Zephyr. In 1949, three train companies, Denver and Rio Grande Western (D&RGW), Western Pacific, and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy joined forces to operate perhaps the best-known passenger train of all time, the California Zephyr. They’d begun talking in the late years of the Depression, but times were hard, money was short, and the plans were postponed, only to be further interrupted by the World War II. When the war was over, restrictions were lifted on non-vital materials and services, and the door opened for the creation of the California Zephyr.

Partnership agreements were reached between WP, D&RGW, and the CB&Q railroads.  The initial orders for the cars were placed with Budd Manufacturing Company.  It was decided that each train would contain five dome cars. The dome cars were the brainchild of C. R. Osborn, General Manager of GM's Electro-Motive Division while riding west in 1944.  It was also agreed that every car would be abide by CB&Q's practice of including the word “Silver” in the names of its stainless steel cars. Seventy-seven "Silver" names would eventually be used in naming the Zephyr's cars. The actual train consisted of thirteen cars (five of them dome cars).

            On Saturday, March 19th, 1949 the California Zephyr made it's only appearance in San Francisco. Situated in front of the Pier 3 Ferry building on the Embarcadero, the Zephyr proudly stood waiting for its official inauguration ceremony. As sunlight gleamed off the stainless steel cars, the ceremony began. It wasn’t Hank Williams who sang that day, it was soprano Evelyn Corvello of the Pacific Opera Company. San Francisco Mayor Leland Cutler gave a welcome address. Western Pacific President Harry A. Mitchell presented the California Zephyr to California Lieutenant Governor Goodwin Knight who accepted it "on behalf of the People of California."  Christening ceremonies were then performed by Warner Brothers Studio actress Eleanor Parker. Breaking a champagne bottle over the nose of WP F3 number 802 she declared, "I christen thee the California Zephyr."

            The next day, the California Zephyr was officially inaugurated. Service was offered between San Francisco and Chicago. Through-car service from Chicago to New York City was provided via the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads. West bound trains would be numbered 17, while the east bound trains would be numbered 18.  The first eastbound run would begin at 9:30 am PST on the 20^th of March. Thus a legend in passenger train history was born.

The weather-proof route of the California Zephyr covered 2,525 miles and took an average of 2 ½ days to complete. Although it was not the fastest route, it had the best scenery and became known as the “most talked about train in America.” A trip on the California Zephyr was aptly called, a “Vista-Dome Adventure,” a name that would appear in many advertisements for years. The CB&Q handled the train from Chicago to Denver, Colorado where it was then handed over to the D&RGW. The D&RGW would then handle it until reaching Salt Lake City, Utah where it was received by the WP for its final leg into California. Scheduling intentionally allowed passengers the most breathtaking views during daytime.  Fantastic scenes of the Feather and Colorado River; South Boulder, Red Gore and Niles Canyon and the great Rocky Mountains were seen during daylight hours, while the Nevada deserts and plains states were crossed at night. In the mountains, the train passed through a series of 47 tunnels, including the great Moffitt tunnel at 9,239 feet above sea level.  As the train passed the Sierra-Nevada, there was only a 1-degree grade down the mountains, making it a smooth ride.  In each of the 5 dome cars were 24 unreserved seats (120 total) along with an observation lounge at the end of the train.  Under each dome was a lounge.  Passengers were free to move about the train to catch a view in one of the domes, relax in one of the lounges or retire to their cabin, which had complete facilities.

            Nearly as well known as the train, were the hostesses, the “Zephyrettes.”  They were the primary point-of-contact for the passengers, and became ambassadors for the train and all it represented.  Unlike the rest of the crews, who were divided among three railroads, the Zephyrettes were unique.  There were 10 to 11 Zephyrettes on staff at any one time, with 6 on the road, 3 in each direction.

       In 1962 the California Zephyr began to show signs of becoming a serious financial liability.  Travel by rail had slowly begun a downward spiral. Airlines and bus routes had begun to make serious cuts into rail travel by offering faster or cheaper methods of transportation, though neither offered the opulence or service afforded to the rail passenger.  From 1965 to 1969, three applications to the International Commerce Commission (ICC) to terminate service of the California Zephyr were denied.  On its fourth application, the ICC released an order on February 13, 1970 stating, "operation of the train was no longer required". The death warrant for the "Silver Lady" had been signed. Final operation of the train was made on March 22, 1970 with a westbound train terminating at Oakland, California. The California Zephyr had operated for 20 years and 2 days and had pampered nearly two million passengers.

       Although the WP and CB&Q no longer operated passenger service under the banner of the California Zephyr, a remnant of the once-proud train remained while maverick D&RGW operated its Rio Grande Zephyr service between Denver and Salt Lake City into the Amtrak era. This too terminated, when D&RGW passenger services were finally handed over to Amtrak in 1983. Amtrak currently offers passenger service under the name of the California Zephyr, although it follows a modified route from the original, and in the opinion of many a purist, Amtrak's version is hardly a fitting repository for such a rich name.

       Almost all of the California Zephyr's 77 cars remain in existence today, although most have been modified by their new owners.  Some of the California Zephyr cars found themselves in the employ of Amtrak, while others went into service on railroads in Mexico and Canada. A few found themselves in museum collections to be restored, or in private ownership.

Thanks to John Wilson and Alan Radecki for information provided.

The Unreleased Recordings User Amazon Review

Unbelievable! This is like finding the end of a rainbow for Hank's fans. Joe Palmaccio (credited with sound restoration and mastering) deserves to have his picture printed on folding money. I have over the years come into the possession of unreleased performances (like a different version of this collection's first mind-blowing cut "Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain," which even has another verse); but the sound quality is nothing as good as that of most all of the songs on here; some of it sounds just like a studio record from the period.

And like a studio record, Hank is singing each song 110%. The hair on the back of my neck was up from beginning to end. It's a great day for Hank's fans to be alive! I'm one of the devoted fan who would have walked across Texas in July just for the privilege of paying 10 times what these recordings cost, and still considered myself lucky; this has to be the best buy in music history. Thankfully "The Complete Hank Williams" (which is friggin excellent, by the way) was misnamed. If "On Top of Old Smoky" or "I'll Sail My Ship Alone" don't become current radio hits, then there's little hope for mankind left. The opener on Disc 2, "I Can't Help it if I'm Still in Love With You," again, is worth the cost of this whole collection, as would be just all the banter and talking on them. What a treasure trove.
A heartfelt 'thank you' to all who made this friggin incredible collection possible. It's the best thing to happen to Hank's fans in at least a decade; I feel sorry for all Hank's fans who never got to hear this collection; this must be how winning the lottery feels.

Rabid Shutterbug
Montgomery, Alabama

Link to review

Hank Williams The Unreleased Recordings Clip

This video footage appears on the Hank DVD available on the 3 disc set at Sam's Club.

Profiling a song from The Unreleased Recordings: California Zephyr

This is part 1 of a 2 part series profiling a song from The Unreleased Recordings:  California Zephyr

Written by  Hank researcher Brian Turpen

A song that Hank wrote, but never recorded commercially, “California Zephyr” was first discovered among demo recordings that Hank left with his music publisher, Acuff-Rose. It was only a vocal-guitar demo, and Acuff-Rose registered the song with the Library of Congress on December 30, 1955, almost two years after Hank’s death. The demo was overdubbed and released as MGM 12185 in February of 1956. A legit full band recording had never been heard until now.

It is believed that Hank wrote “California Zephyr” sometime around August or September 1951. His buddy, Hank Snow, was in the charts with train songs like “Golden Rocket,” and Hank himself had scored a hit with another train song, “Pan American,” earlier in his career, so he probably thought the moment was ripe for “California Zephyr.” On his Mother’s Best radio show (issued on The Unreleased Recordings), Hank introduced the song by saying, “wrote this here a few days ago, a new song called, ‘The California Zephyr.’ Let’s ride, all aboard …” He sings it with his full band, and it’s a truly fabulous performance.  

What many may not know is that the song was written about an actual train. In fact, the song opens a window onto an era when cross-country travel was usually by train rather than by airplane, bus, or car. That said, Hank’s lyrics weren’t entirely accurate (the train was operated by Western Pacific not Union Pacific) and Hank got the itinerary wrong.

This is the story of the real train called the California Zephyr. In 1949, three train companies, Denver and Rio Grande Western (D&RGW), Western Pacific, and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy joined forces to operate perhaps the best-known passenger train of all time, the California Zephyr. They’d begun talking in the late years of the Depression, but times were hard, money was short, and the plans were postponed, only to be further interrupted by the World War II. When the war was over, restrictions were lifted on non-vital materials and services, and the door opened for the creation of the California Zephyr.

to be continued...

Hank Online Clippings

The latest Hank online clippings:

HipOnline Review

Readjunk

Demonoid

Hillbilly Blog

TheBoot

Congoo

Cold, Cold Heart

Patty Loveless covered the Hank Williams track "Cold, Cold Heart" on Sleepless Nights. It just so happens that "Cold, Cold Heart" is also a featured track on the The Unreleased Recordings.

Get the Hank version @
Get the Patty version @

Country Air Check

Jett Williams visits Country Air Check. Picture here, scroll down to the bottom.

Country Weekly Magazine

Lost Hank Williams Recordings to be Released
A collection of 143 unreleased Hank Williams recordings will soon be made available to fans.
The Time Life company plans to issue the recordings over the next three years, beginning this fall. The tracks are drawn from 72 episodes of a 1951 radio show saved from the trash by an employee of Nashville station WSM and given to the Williams estate. A long legal battle over rights to the tapes was recently concluded, allowing for their release. Among the recordings are 40 songs the country legend never officially recorded, including versions of “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” “Cherokee Boogie” and “The Blind Child.” “This treasure trove of music will introduce my daddy to a whole new generation of fans and bring memories to his existing fans,” says Hank’s daughter, Jett Williams. “Everyone will get to know the man and his musical genius as never before. These recordings were my vehicle to get to really know the father I never met.”

Country Standard Time Review

These recordings were made just two years from his untimely death and represent Williams at his relaxed, down-home best. It might be too much for all save the most loyal of his fans, but as a historical document, it is nearly unrivaled in the genre.

Read the rest here

Los Angeles Times Review

Listening to the set, it's clear that Williams could have been an influential figure in country music even if he had never written a song. His phrasing in this relaxed setting sometimes exhibits a stronger and more personal edge than he showed during his more formal recording sessions.

Although many boxed sets are so filled with hits and misses that they deserve to be called little more than record industry "product," this set is so rich and revealing it deserves to be labeled "historic."

Los Angeles Times Article

Hank Williams The Unreleased Recordings EP out NOW!

For those of you wanting a taste of some of the tracks on the The Unreleased Recordings, recommended is the 5 tracks up on . 

Mini Album Track Listing:  

Blues Eyes Crying In The Rain

I Can't Help It

Cherokee Boogie

Cold, Cold Heart

I'll Fly Away

 

Of course, if you want all 54 tracks for your collection recommended is the 3 disc set that you can buy on Amazon or Timelife.com

Thanks, and more Hank reviews and features on the way!!!

Hank NPR Special Edition - Hank Williams' Lost Music: Rare And Resurfaced

Below is a link to the NPR Weekend Edition Special interview with Jett Williams that broadcast on Saturday.  

Click here to read and listen. 

How Hank Williams Recorded for Mother's Best Flour (Full Entry)

By Brian Turpen

The Mother’s Best Flour shows are the most well-known and most sought-after Hank Williams artifact. Unheard for over fifty years, the shows were broadcast over WSM in Nashville every morning between 7:15 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. at the peak of Hank’s career in 1951.  He was paid $100 a week for the shows.

            Some of the shows were pre-recorded to be played on the air when Hank was out on the road.  It was these transcriptions that have luckily survived.  The format was pretty consistent. The 15-minute shows usually consisted of one country song, one instrumental or guest vocal and a gospel song to close the show.  The shows also included a theme song that Hank wrote and sang during the broadcast:

 

                        "I love to have that gal around

                        Her biscuits are so nice and brown

                        Her pies and cakes beat all the rest

                        Cause she makes them all with Mother's Best”

 

But that’s not all the shows had to offer because Hank had more to do than sing. We hear him and announcer Louie Buck selling Mother's Best Flour, as well as self-raising cornmeal and pig & sow feed. We also hear him talk unguardedly about the songs he loved, his grueling itinerary, and much more. The Mother's Best Shows are arguably Hank’s best work and hs most revealing. They capture his personality better than anything else known to exist. It is probably the in-between song chatter that makes these recordings so great becacuse you get a glimpse of what Hank Williams was like as a person.

            Although fans and collectors have heard of these Mother’s Best Flour shows for years, very few know much if anything about the company that sponsored these famous radio programs.  Here’s a little history of the company that gave us this priceless glimpse into the heart and soul of Hank Williams.

Mother’s Best Flour can trace its origins back to 1919.  That year, Frank Little and Alva Kinney incorporated Nebraska Consolidated Mills when they took over Nebraska Grain Mills in Grand Island, Hastings, St. Edward, and Ravenna. They were initially headquartered in Grand Island, until they moved to Omaha in 1922. The company ran at a profit until 1936, when Kinney retired.  In 1940, the company began producing flour, and in 1942 ventured into the livestock feed business.

            In 1941, company president R.S. Dickinson opened the company's first out-of-state facility in Decatur, Alabama with a flour mill and animal feed plant.  The site was chosen because of its proximity to transportation on the Tennessee River and its central location. About six Nebraskan families relocated, bringing some Midwestern ideas into the Deep South. Alabama Flour Mills opened for production in late 1941. The mill consumed large amounts of grain, most of which was shipped from the Midwest.  Flour milling had been the plant’s strength from the beginning, when it produced 80,000 pounds a day. The executive in charge of the Alabama mill was C.H. Thomas. The mill produced the company’s old favorite, White Elephant, and added a new brand, Mother’s Best, upon their opening in 1941.  Mother’s Best was also packaged at Nebraska Consolidated’s other mills, but the bulk of the production was from Decatur. Today most supermarket flour is in paper bags that are thrown away.  In the 1940s, flour was packaged in colorful cloth bags that people used to make curtains, dish towels, pillow-cases, and even clothes. Mother’s Best bags were no exception.

            Just months after the Alabama mill opened, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and the mill worked around the clock and became an important industry in the war effort. In the early days, the company tested flour produced at the mill.  Lab workers baked bread, biscuits and corn bread on site to make sure the flour was up to standards.  After the testing, the “girls in the office” would eat the baked goods.

Although the head office in Nebraska had final say-so over advertising and sponsorship, it was Alabama Flour Mills’ executive C.H. Thomas who pushed for Mother’s Best Flour to reach out to rural areas by sponsoring several radio shows throughout the South. In the mid 1940s to the early 1950s, the Mother’s Best Flour brand sponsored several different radio programs.  Some of their sponsored shows were: Joe Rumore and Rebe & Rabe on WVOK in Birmingham, Alabama; Bob Helton and later Curley Williams on WSFA in Montgomery, Alabama; Slim Rhodes on WMC in Memphis, Tennessee; bluesmen Houston Stackhouse, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Joe Willie Wilkins and Robert Lockwood Jr. on KFFA at Helena, Arkansas; and the Wyatt Brothers on KBOA in Piggott, Arkansas.  However, by far the most popular Mother’s Best spokesperson was Hank Williams on WSM out of Nashville, Tennessee. Hank sold Mother’s Best on WSM from late 1950 or early 1951 until the late weeks of 1951 when he reluctantly went into Vanderbilt Medical Center for an operation on his spine that he hoped would relieve some of his back pain. Soon after his death on January 1, 1953, the era of “live” radio came to an end.

           

            The mill is still producing flour and remains one of the Decatur’s oldest industries.  The basis of flour milling hasn’t changed radically, and the plant is using some of the same equipment used in the 1940s.  The mill supplies flour to most of the commercial bakeries in Alabama, and currently produces over 1 million pounds a day. It also still operates an animal feed mill in Decatur.

            As for the mill’s parent company, Nebraska Consolidated Mills established Duncan Hines in 1951 as a way to market more flour by selling cake mixes. This venture was successful, but they didn’t consider other food ventures, and eventually sold Duncan Hines to Procter & Gamble in 1956 to returned to their core business. As American households purchased more and more prepared and instant foods in the 1950s and 1960s, Consolidated chose not to expand into the businesses that used their flour, instead turning to poultry and livestock feed. A flurry of acquisitions and internal expansion led the company to change its name in 1971 to ConAgra.

            The 1970s brought the company to the brink of ruin when commodity speculation wiped out their margins on raw foods. In 1974, an experienced food industry executive, Mike Harper, took over the firm and brought it back from the brink of bankruptcy. The company set off on a two-decade-long buying spree, purchasing over one hundred prepared food brands, starting with Banquet Foods in 1980. It moved heavily into the frozen food business and the packaged meat industry, and then picked up a selection of other brands from firms like RJR Nabisco and Beatrice Foods.  Today, ConAgra operates 30 mills and is one of the three largest flour producers in the United States.

 

            Hank Williams saw none of that. He lived at a time when housewives stayed home and cooked from scratch. He loved good southern cooking, and at the close of every show he’d call out to his cook to get the biscuits in the oven because he was heading home. Ironically, some of Hank’s Mother’s Best shows have survived because he pre-recorded them, and he pre-recorded because he was hundreds or thousands of miles away from home. Much as he might have wished it otherwise, he wasn’t leaving the WSM studio and heading home to Audrey and Hank, Jr. Instead, he was headed to another town and another show.

Hank CMT.com Listening Party

You can listen to 12 Hank The Unreleased Recordings tracks right now on CMT.com.

Listen Here

Austin Chronicle Review

Snippet

For one, the sound quality is outstanding, perhaps better than Hank’s studio work. The other is the range of the material, from non-Williams composed tunes of the day (“Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain,” “Cherokee Boogie,” “Cool Water”) to deep gospel and religious tunes to surprising versions of songs he's well known for, including what seems to be the first known recording of “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You).” With lots of historical photos and an illuminating essay by Williams’ biographer Colin Escot, The Unreleased Recordings continues the loving way the Williams estate has handled his legacy. If there’s a country music lover on your Christmas list, it’ll look mighty nice under this year’s tree.

Original Austin Chronicle Article

Rolling Stone Review

In 1951, if you were awake at 7:15 in the morning and your radio was within the long reach of Nashville's WSM-AM, you had Hank Williams with your farina, singing with his Drifting Cowboys and selling sacks of flour for his sponsor, Mother's Best. Williams wasn't in the WSM studio at that hour; he prerecorded the shows on days off from touring. But the 54 performances in this three-CD set pack a magical, concentrated immediacy that is, in its time and way, as electrifying as Johnny Cash's Sixties prison shows or Bob Dylan's early acoustic concerts. Williams' nasally drawl is crisp and strong, like the young Dylan without the sandpaper; he holds the long, desolate notes in "Cool Water" with stunning force. Williams' wide-ranging songbag is also a rare window into his daily life as an entertainer. He takes requests (the pre-Civil War spiritual "Lonely Tombs"), debuts new originals like "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love With You)" and puts his own potent spin on hits by Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff. But these broadcasts were a unique, intimate showbiz, too, for a working class to whom a good tune and some harmony could be the best part of a day. "That's a mighty fine song for you boys to send out, especially to all our shut-in friends this morning," an announcer says after a bunkhouse-choir reading of the hymn "Where He Leads Me." Play these songs over your breakfast, and wake up right.


Original Review by David Frick

How Hank Williams Recorded for Mother's Best Flour (Part 2)

Hank expert Brian Turpen joins the Hank Blog this week in a 3 part mini series. Below is part 2.

In 1941, company president R.S. Dickinson opened the company's first out-of-state facility in Decatur, Alabama with a flour mill and animal feed plant. The site was chosen because of its proximity to transportation on the Tennessee River and its central location. About six Nebraskan families relocated, bringing some Midwestern ideas into the Deep South. Alabama Flour Mills opened for production in late 1941. The mill consumed large amounts of grain, most of which was shipped from the Midwest. Flour milling had been the plant’s strength from the beginning, when it produced 80,000 pounds a day. The executive in charge of the Alabama mill was C.H. Thomas. The mill produced the company’s old favorite, White Elephant, and added a new brand, Mother’s Best, upon their opening in 1941. Mother’s Best was also packaged at Nebraska Consolidated’s other mills, but the bulk of the production was from Decatur. Today most supermarket flour is in paper bags that are thrown away. In the 1940s, flour was packaged in colorful cloth bags that people used to make curtains, dish towels, pillow-cases, and even clothes. Mother’s Best bags were no exception.

Just months after the Alabama mill opened, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and the mill worked around the clock and became an important industry in the war effort. In the early days, the company tested flour produced at the mill. Lab workers baked bread, biscuits and corn bread on site to make sure the flour was up to standards. After the testing, the “girls in the office” would eat the baked goods.

Although the head office in Nebraska had final say-so over advertising and sponsorship, it was Alabama Flour Mills’ executive C.H. Thomas who pushed for Mother’s Best Flour to reach out to rural areas by sponsoring several radio shows throughout the South. In the mid 1940s to the early 1950s, the Mother’s Best Flour brand sponsored several different radio programs. Some of their sponsored shows were: Joe Rumore and Rebe & Rabe on WVOK in Birmingham, Alabama; Bob Helton and later Curley Williams on WSFA in Montgomery, Alabama; Slim Rhodes on WMC in Memphis, Tennessee; bluesmen Houston Stackhouse, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Joe Willie Wilkins and Robert Lockwood Jr. on KFFA at Helena, Arkansas; and the Wyatt Brothers on KBOA in Piggott, Arkansas. However, by far the most popular Mother’s Best spokesperson was Hank Williams on WSM out of Nashville, Tennessee. Hank sold Mother’s Best on WSM from late 1950 or early 1951 until the late weeks of 1951 when he reluctantly went into Vanderbilt Medical Center for an operation on his spine that he hoped would relieve some of his back pain. Soon after his death on January 1, 1953, the era of “live” radio came to an end.
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The series will continue later this week