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Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Hank, For the Memories

Amazing fact:  Hank Williams  could still be among us, only recently retired.  That's 61 years now since he died on this day in 1953.    Here's recent song by Mary Karr and Rodney Crowell imagining Hank going to rehab.  And tributes from Emmylou, Waylon, Tim Hardin--and Henry "E.T." Thomas playing him on his last ride.

I've heard a lot of live Hank Williams over the years, mainly single cuts from radio shows or the Opry.   But here's most of a show in Pennsylvania a few months before he died (it does cut out from time to time), with "Hey Good Lookin'," "Jambalaya" (the song had not yet been released) and "I Saw the Light"  and other classics, plus some Hank patter and jokes and storytelling.  Even explains what goes into jambalaya.  Never knew this existed.  Hank is rightly known as the greatest songwriter in country music--and just about any music--but here reveals why many also consider him country's greatest singer, even when (likely) half-drunk. Even reveals how he's sung one song so many times he "wakes up at night singing it." 

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