Details
Track Listing
DISC 1:
1. Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain
2. Dust On the Bible
3. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
4. I Heard My Savior Calling Me
5. Precious Lord, Take My Hand
6. Hey, Good Lookin'
7. On Top of Old Smoky
8. I Can't Tell My Heart That
9. I Dreamed That the Great Judgement Morning
10. Next Sunday Darling is My Birthday
11. At the First Fall of Snow
12. Dear John
13. Blind Child's Prayer, The
14. I'll Have a New Life
15. On the Banks of the Pontchartrain
16. Low and Lonely
17. Drifting Too Far From the Shore
18. I'm Gonna Sing
DISC 2:
1. I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)
2. Seaman's Blues
3. Prodigal Son, The
4. Cherokee Boogie
5. Where He Leads Me
6. From Jerusalem To Jericho
7. Cool Water
8. I've Got My One-Way Ticket To the Sky
9. Searching For a Soldier's Grave
10. California Zephyr
11. Softly and Tenderly
12. Just When I Needed You
13. Gathering Flowers For the Master's Bouquet
14. Why Should We Try Any More
15. Old Country Church, The
16. May You Never Be Alone
17. When the Fire Comes Down
18. Lonely Tombs
DISC 3:
1. Picture's From Life's Other Side
2. I'll Fly Away
3. Cold Cold Heart
4. Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
5. When God Dips His Love In My Heart
6. Thy Burdens Are Greater Than Mine
7. When the Saints Go Marchin' In
8. I'll Sail My Ship Alone
9. Wedding Bells
10. Mind Your Own Business
11. You Blotted My Happy Schooldays
12. Where the Soul Never Dies
13. Pins and Needles (In My Heart)
14. Tennessee Border
15. There's Nothing As Sweet As My Baby
16. Wait For the Light To Shine
17. If I Didn't Love You
18. Pale Horse and His Rider, The
Album Notes
Personnel: Hank Williams (vocals, guitar); Cousin Louie Buck (spoken vocals); Sammy Pruett (guitar); Jerry Rivers (fiddle); Howard Watts (bass guitar); Audrey Williams (background vocals).
Liner Note Author: Colin Escott.
Recording information: Mother's Best Flour Company,1951.
As important as any country music release in the digital era, HANK WILLIAMS: THE UNRELEASED RECORDINGS finds Williams delivering some of the most impactful performances of his career. Captured during his artistic zenith in 1951 for the Mother's Best Flour Company, these sessions' acetates were forgotten until the 1970s. Eventually Williams's daughter Jett won a protracted legal battle and partnered with Time Life for their release. Mastered without the severe compression that bedeviled his most famous studio recordings, the 143 tracks foreground Williams's expressive vocal delivery as it seesaws between a yearning rustic croon and shiv-sharp, reedy wail. A loose Hank jokes with his studio band and even tells stories about some of the songs as he introduces them. Touching upon his classics like "Cold, Cold Heart," "Hey, Good Lookin'," and "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)," the bulk of the three discs comprises songs that pop up nowhere else in the country god's catalog. Among these many standouts include charged readings of "On Top of Old Smokey," the cowboy standard "Cool Water," and the Luke the Drifter song "Pictures from Life's Other Side" (with a never-before-heard extra verse). An essential purchase for country music fans and enthusiasts of all stripes.
Industry Reviews
4.5 stars out of 5 -- 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.
5 stars out of 5 -- There's a looseness to many of Hank's performances....A mesmerizing and intimate portrait of country music's first superstar.
5 stars out of 5 -- With a host of hymns, traditional songs and covers Williams never otherwise recorded, and one or two hitherto unknown originals, it's a thrilling new insight into a 20th century music colossus.
Not only do the tracks brim with raw, unrestrained emotion, but they project a certain warmth and conviction, not to mention finesse, that give each song the necessary emotion it needs.
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