Hank Blurt.com Review

GREATEST DISCOVERY EVER Hank Williams

Feb 19, 2009

The country music giant's recent trove of unreleased material may be just that.

 

BY RICK ALLEN

 

To say that anyone who doesn't like Hank Williams' music simply hasn't heard it yet may be the weakest of arguments, but that doesn't mean that in most cases it isn't a valid one. Hank Williams was one of the most important figures in American popular music and probably the most important and greatest country music artist ever; not as that music's founder, but certainly its major codifier.

 

There are 54 cuts in Time-Life Entertainment's recent 3-CD box The Unreleased Recordings (www.timelife.com)  culled from a batch of 143 songs recorded for his 1951 radio show for the Mother's Best Flour Company on Nashville's WSM and which were forgotten until barely escaping the dustbin during a cleanout of the station's audio library in the 1990s.  A sticker on the set's shrink wrap doesn't even limit the significance of the find to music, calling it "the greatest discovery ever." It's not that much of an exaggeration; think of going to investigate a noise in the attic and finding a pristine 1952 Fender Telecaster, a case of Chateau Rothschild '66 and a copy of Action Comics #1 in a climate controlled corner.

 

 

Many of the songs here - some never recorded or released in any other form - are Williams originals; some are personal favorites of his - favorite hymns from childhood or songs by contemporaries like Western Swing and pre-rockabilly artist Moon Mullican or Fred Rose (who, as Colin Escott's notes in the booklet point out, Hank considered "the greatest living songwriter in our kinda music"). Hank's band, the Drifting Cowboys, crack players, road tested, were in their musical prime, as was Hank, then at a high point in a career that promised to reach even higher.

 

Since Hank and the band were constantly touring at the time, some of these tracks were pre-recorded to be broadcast on his early morning radio show. But many are one-take, live-in-studio performances of songs not heard since they were broadcast on the show in the middle of the last century.

 

Among the rare finds is Hank's version of "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain," with a verse missing from Willie Nelson's hit version and which adds to the song's sad, poignant beauty. Between cuts there's a relaxed Hank, comfortably in his element, cracking wise with band and crew and introducing songs like "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" as "brand spanking new... nobody's ever heard this one but me and the record company" - thus giving a sneak peek at songs that would become classics months, even weeks, later.

 

 

With the jury long in regarding Hank Williams, the high quality of the music here, from composition to execution, is pretty much a given. The surprise - and a whole new level of listening enjoyment - comes from the results of the efforts of Joe Palmaccio and the rest of the restoration crew. Working from what were, from a modern perspective, technically primitive sources, they have made these cuts sound like they were done yesterday - no matter when "today" is.  Hank's vocals are clear and natural-sounding and each instrument clearly discernible in a well-balanced mix. Sonically these cuts match or even beat their "official" contemporarily recorded releases.

 

This is first-rate stuff from an artist who has written and recorded some of the world's most enduring music, a singer who, as Hank's daughter Jett says in her introduction (quoting producer Owen Bradley, who played piano on several of Hank's recordings), "sang every song as if his life depended on it." And the music gets the presentation it deserves; the accompanying booklet is full of fresh, candid pictures and engaging, informative anecdotes.

 

The Unreleased Recordings contains a little over a third of the recovered tracks, which means there are almost 100 still available for similar treatment and eventual release - talk about settin' the woods of fire.

 

It'll be like Christmas in July.

Time Life to release Hank Williams: Gospel Keepsakes

Hold your engines.  Time Life is set to release Hank Williams:  Gospel Keepsakes featuring 15 Gospel new Gospel songs from the Mother's Best Recordings. 

Read all about it here

Hyperbolium Best of 2008

Hyperbolium featured The Unreleased Recordings on its Best of 2008. 

Dallas Morning News

Hank Williams, The Unreleased Recordings (Time Life Entertainment, $39.98)

The story of these 54 songs spread over three CDs is worth the price of the box.

The late Hank Williams recorded a series of shows, some 72 of them, for WSM radio back in 1951, a mere two years before his death. The legendary station was about to dump those acetates. But a photographer for WSM's Grand Ole Opry saved them from the trash and handed them to Jett Williams, Hank's daughter.

Extensive legal wrangling later, we have this handsome book-style box featuring an essay by Jett and thoughtful song annotations by music historian Colin Escott.

All that pales in comparison to the restored quality. It's astounding how crisp, clear and high-lonesome ol' Hank sounds. It's as if he were singing right next to you. 

Hank Williams Wall Street Journal

Country CDs With Legs

Recordings and reissues in 2008 that are likely to last

With the many "best" lists out this time of year, I thought I'd up the ante a little and suggest a short list of new country releases and historic issues and reissues that seem most likely to last. As with all lists in this genre, there's that "What do you mean by country?" question to clarify. In this case, it means CDs released as country, unquestionably for the country audience. If this set does not include such strong close-to-country releases as Shelby Lynne's smart, soulful Dusty Springfield salute, "Just a Little Lovin'," Glenn Campbell's touching country-pop tinged turn on modern rock, "Meet Glen Campbell," or the memorable shaggy-dog ballads of Hayes Carll's "Trouble in Mind," that's why.

REISSUES & HISTORIC

Hank Williams
"The Unreleased Recordings"
Time-Life, $39.98

These live radio performances from Hank's early morning "Mother's Best Flour" shows of 1950-51 were held out of circulation for years, due to litigation, and now emerge in this boxed set as among the strongest Williams performances on record -- startling in their immediacy and sound quality, and showing a relaxed, teasing Hank who's more a singer of hymns and his favorite standards ("Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You") than a doomed, star-crossed icon. That's priceless.

The Indepedent (Hank Review)

Read it here

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.