Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
We lost Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash within months of each other back in 2003, so 2018 marks a very sad 15th-anniversary farewell to the “Man In Black”.
The release last year of UNEARTHED, a nine album 180 gram vinyl box set (originally released on CD two months after his death) of unreleased tracks recorded by Rick Rubin, (it features some interesting pairings such as Fiona Apple providing guest vocals on Cat Stevens’ “Father & Son,” and the late Joe Strummer’s duets with Cash on Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”) provides us with a excuse to take another look back at his career.
While modern country radio has no use for the likes of Johnny Cash, preferring more commercial fodder, other sections of the music industry have kept his music alive, whether on Willie’s Roadhouse (Sirius XM Radio) or through the musical press. Cover bands continue to play his music and while younger so-called country singers play music that bears little connection to country music, his music remains a staple of Roots-Rock, Texas Red-Dirt and Bluegrass performers
Make no mistake about it: Johnny Cash was a huge commercial success, despite his own apparent lack of concern about how commercial his music was at any given moment–Cash’s inquisitive artistry meant that he flitted from realm to realm, sometimes touching down in areas with limited commercial appeal.
Cash had 24 songs reach #1 on the Billboard, Cashbox or Record World country charts (often all three), but unlike more chart-oriented artists including Webb Pierce, Buck Owens, Sonny James, Alabama, Conway Twitty or George Strait, Cash never ran off a long string of consecutive #1s, with his longest streak being four during 1968 when “Roseanna’s Going Wild,” “Daddy Sang Bass,” “A Boy Named Sue,” and his iconic “Folsom Prison Blues” all reached the top of one of the charts.
1957 (Sales): Bye Bye Love — The Everly Brothers (Cadence)
1957 (Disc Jockeys): Bye Bye Love — The Everly Brothers (Cadence)
1967: Branded Man — Merle Haggard (Capitol)
1977: Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue — Crystal Gayle (United Artists)
1987: Born to Boogie — Hank Williams Jr. (Warner Bros./Curb)
1997: She’s Got It All — Kenny Chesney (BNA)
2007: Never Wanted Nothing More — Kenny Chesney (BNA)
2017: Body Like a Back Road — Sam Hunt (MCA)
2017 (Airplay): Somebody Else Will — Justin Moore (Valory)
Before we get underway with our Johnny Paycheck spotlight, we have some unfinished business concerning last month’s spotlight artist Don Williams. Through an oversight, this review was not published on Monday, May 29th as originally intended, so we are bringing it to you now — a little late but worth the wait.
The year 1992 was an interesting year in country music as the ‘New Traditionalist’ movement reached its zenith following the first flowering in 1986 (Randy Travis, Travis Tritt, Dwight Yoakam) and the vaunted class of 1989 led by Alan Jackson, Clint Black and Garth Brooks. By 1992 so-called hat acts proliferated and even when the music was not strictly traditionalist, fiddle and steel guitar were prominently featured in the music.
In 1987 Hank Williams Jr. and a cadre of younger artists presaged the 1992 music scene with the video “Young Country”, but with one exception: while the listeners may have been listening to both the new acts and the older acts in concert (and through their cassette and CD collections), radio had completely discarded Haggard and Jones and almost discarded the 48 year old Hank Williams Jr.
Currents, which was released in April 1992, was the third (and final) Don Williams album to be released on the RCA label. Don had enjoyed three top ten hits off the previous album True Love, but those would prove to be the last top forty chart hits of Don’s career. Make no mistake about it, Currents, like every album Don released before it (or even after it, for that matter) is a very good album. The problem with the album was the ‘Young Country’ movement was in full swing and the fifty-three year old Williams looked like ‘Old Country’ even if his music was not exactly of the Ernest Tubb/Hank Sr. old school vintage. In fact with his rapidly graying beard, Don looked even a bit older than his age. Radio simply quit playing him.
The album opens up with a Hugh Prestwood song, “Only Water (Shining In The Air)”, mid-tempo ballad with a little different sound than previous efforts:
Not that long ago, I was on the run
People telling me I should be someone
And the things I’d learnt were forgotten in my haste
Till I reached the end of the rainbow I had chased
It was only water shining in thin air
I put out my hand and there was nothing there
After all the promise, after all the prayer
It was only water shining in the air
Now I’ve got a wife and she sees me through
And I’ve got a friend I can talk straight to
And I’ve got some dreams just a bit more down to earth
And I don’t forget what a rainbow’s really worth
“Too Much Love” has a sing-a-long quality to it and, again, a little more of a contemporary sound to it. Written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, the song has rather bouncy lyrics of not much substance. The song was released as the second single; it deserved a better fate than dying at #72.
Too much coffee, too much tea, too much sugar isn’t good for me.
Too much money and too much fame, too much liqueur drives a man insane.
But too much love, too much love, there’s no such thing as too much love.
Too much fighting and misery, there’s too much trouble in this world for me.
There’s too much of this and too much of that and too much of anything will make you fat.
But too much love, too much love, there’s no such thing as too much love.
I really liked “That Song About The Water”, in fact it is my favorite song on the album. I think it would have made a good single but I doubt radio would have played it either. Penned by Charles John Quarto and Steve Gillette, the song is a slow ballad that sounds like a typical late 60s – early 70s production with steel guitar and (to a lesser degree) harmonica very prominent in the arrangement. I can hear this as a track on a Charley Pride album from that period.
I have seen the paddle wheelers
Rolling south on a summers day
I’ve seen the lovers at the guardrails
With stars in their lemonade
And I’ve heard the hobos gather
Heard their banjos brace the blade
Heard them sing about the river
Called it the lazy mans parade
Sing me that song about the river
Green going away
You know I always did feel like a drifter
At this time of day
Alex Harvey wrote “Catfish Bates” the third single from the album and the first Don Williams single not to chart after fifty-three consecutive solo chart singles. This mid-tempo ballad also features mid-70s country production. If released as a single 15-18 years earlier, I think it would have been a substantial hit. Of course, I may be prejudiced since fried catfish is my favorite form of seafood:
They call me Catfish Bates
‘Cause I can catch a catfish anytime I want to
Even when the moon man tells me they won’t bite
They call me Catfish Bates
‘Cause I know where that big ole flathead’s a hidin’.
I’m a gonna take him home with me tonight
I am the king of the Loosahatchie
My home is on the river
And them catfish they all know me by my sighI keep my nose on the westwind
My eye on the water
And my mind on my business all the time
Don turns to Dobie Gray for the next two songs. Gray was essentially an R&B singer who had two huge pop hits, “The In Crowd” (1965) and “Drift Away” (1972). Country fans may remember “Drift Away from Narvel Felts top ten record in 1973.
“So Far, So Good” is a slow ballad about a breakup that the narrator thinks is about to happen, but which hasn’t happened yet. “In The Family” features a Caribbean rhythm verging on reggae. It’s different but it works
Well I was raised up by the golden rule
In an old house with a patched up roof
We had a hard home but it pulled us close
We were family
Oh that summer, when the crops all died
Was the first time I saw Daddy cry
An’ I heard Momma say what goes on here stays
In the family[Chorus]
Well our clothes weren’t new, that old car was used
We held our own
Whoa you just can’t buy, that sense of pride
We grew up on, In the family
I was stunned that “Standing Knee Deep In A River (Dying of Thirst)”, written by the crack team of Bob McDill and Dickey Lee, was not released as a Don Williams single. Instead Kathy Mattea took it to the top twenty in 1993. I like Kathy Mattea but Don’s version is better.
Friends I could count on I could count on one hand with a left over finger or two.
I took them for granted, let them all slip away, now where they are I wish I knew.
They roll by just like water & I guess we never learn,
Go through life parched and empty standing knee deep in a river, dying of thirst.
Pat Alger contributed “Lone Star State of Mind” a song which barely cracked the top forty for Nanci Griffith in 1987. Charles John Quarto and Steve Gillette contributed “The Old Trail”, a jog-along ballad that isn’t as cowboy as the title suggests. Both songs are good album tracks.
The album closes up with “It’s Who You Love” a top twenty hit for writer Kieran Kane back in 1982. This song was released as the first single from the album. It died at # 73, the first indication that Don’s career as a chart singles act was through. I really like Don’s version – he is a more distinctive vocalist than Kieran Kane – but the song did not do great things in 1982, either.
Lying here beside her I’ve come to understand
If you want to be happy you can
It don’t take living like a king, it doesn’t cost you anything
All it takes is a woman and a man
Because its who you love and who loves you
It’s not where you are if she’s there too
It’s not who you know or what you do
It’s who you love and who loves you
This modern world we live in is a sad state of affairs
Everybody wants what isn’t theirs
While the race for money and success in search of happiness
We turn out the light and go upstairs
Kathy Mattea contributes backing vocals on “The Old Trail”, Dobie Gray does likewise on the two songs he wrote. Kieran Kane plays mandolin and Russ Pahl plays steel guitar. Something called the Bhundu Boys plays on “In The Family” providing guitars, handclaps and cowbells.
I doubt that there was a great conspiracy on radio to not play Don Williams records in 1992 (but I could be convinced otherwise). This is a fine album, with subtle and appropriate instrumentation and featuring a bunch of good songs. This album fits comfortably in the B+ to A- range where most of Don’s albums reside.
No further chart singles would occur for Don Williams, although his subsequent albums would occasionally reach the lower reaches of the Country Albums charts.
I guess Jerry Reed Hubbard was correct when he said “When You’re Hot You’re Hot, When You’re Not,You’re Not”.
Jessi’s career slowed down in the late 70s as her radio success fizzled out and she and Waylon had their first (and only) child, Shooter, in 1979. However, in 1981 she recorded a popular album of duets with Waylon (Leather and Lace). This prompted her to return to the studio on her own account, and she resumed her deal with Capitol. Waylon shared production duties with Randy Scruggs.
Although jessi’s duets with Waylon had been hits, it turned out that country rado was now really only interested in jessi as Waylon’s wife. Her solo singles were roundly ignored, with the most successful release from this album, ‘Holdin’ On’, peaking at #70. This is a nice quite upbeat song about splitting up, written by Jessi and Waylon with Basil McDavid.
McDavid is the main co-writer for the album, with another five songs credited to him and Jessi. The charming love song ‘Ain’t Making No Headlines (Here Without You)’ about coping with separation was also covered by Hank Jr, with slightly altered lyrics.
Slightly different versions of the bluesy title track bookend the album. ‘Ridin’ Shotgun (Honkin’)’ features backing vocals and harmonica and ‘Ridin’ Shotgun (Tonkin’)’. ‘Hard Times And Sno-Cone’ is a little quirky; its precise meaning is unclear but with its references to a man who ‘called her a woman but he knew she was a child’, it may possibly have been inspired by Jennifer Harness, Jessi’s teenage daughter by her first marriage to Duane Eddy. She had had a baby at just 15, who Jessi and Waylon helped to raise alongside their own son Shooter, just a year older, and married soon afterwards. The most interesting of the McDavid co-writes is the airy ‘Jennifer (Fly My Little Baby)’, to and about Jennifer. Jennifer and Waylon both guest on vocals, making this a real family affair, with Jennifer singing:
Mama don’t worry about Jennifer
Jennifer’s gonna be fine
I know it won’t be easy
Mom I’m gonna give it a try
You gave me some dreams
Now I’ve got wings and I’m headed for the sky
I have the trust in you to have the faith in me
So come on won’t you watch me fly…
Jessi and Waylon then advise:
To all you mamas and daddies
Who have a Jennifer you love so
If you wanna hold on to her
First you gotta learn to let her go
Jessi throws in a pair of very current covers: Waylon’s 1981 hit ‘Shine’, and Corbin/Hanner’s spiritual ‘On The Wings Of My Victory’, later recorded by Glen Campbell. She also takes on a much older song, the delicately pretty ‘A Fallen Star’.
‘Somewhere Along The Way’, the only solo Jessi Colter composition on this album, is a subdued ballad about regret for past choices. Co-producer Randy Scruggs contributed ‘Nobody Else But You’, a pretty love song with a lilting melody.
The album is available on a three-album/double CD with Mirriam and That’s The Way A Cowboy Rocks And Rolls.
Grade: B+
1957 (Sales):Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1957 (Jukebox): Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1957 (Disc Jockeys): Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1967: There Goes My Everything — Jack Greene (Decca)
1977: Sweet Dreams — Emmylou Harris (Reprise)
1987: Mind Your Own Business — Hank Williams Jr. ft. Reba McEntire, Tom Petty, Reverend Ike, & Willie Nelson (Warner Bros./Curb)
1997: One Way Ticket (Because I Can) — LeAnn Rimes (Curb)
2007: She’s Everything — Brad Paisley (Arista)
2017: Blue Ain’t Your Color — Keith Urban (Capitol)
2017 (Airplay): Wanna Be That Song — Brett Eldredge (Atlantic)
1956 (Sales):Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1956 (Jukebox): Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1956 (Disc Jockeys): Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1966: There Goes My Everything — Jack Greene (Decca)
1976: Sweet Dreams — Emmylou Harris (Reprise)
1986: Mind Your Own Business — Hank Williams Jr. ft. Reba McEntire, Tom Petty, Reverend Ike, & Willie Nelson (Warner Bros./Curb)
1996: One Way Ticket (Because I Can) — LeAnn Rimes (Curb)
2006: Want To — Sugarland (Mercury)
2016: Blue Ain’t Your Color — Keith Urban (Capitol)
2016 (Airplay): Wanna Be That Strong — Brett Eldredge (Atlantic)
One of the hallmarks of a great singer, as well as a great song, is the ability to strip away the slick production and studio wizardry, down to the bare bones: one voice and one instrument, without any loss of impact on the listener. It used to be taken for granted that most country music artists could do this, but in the age of music videos and autotune it’s become a dying art. Travis Tritt shows the younger generation how it’s done in his new live album, A Man and His Guitar, which was recorded over two nights in Franklin, Tennessee. The two disc set is being sold on CD and DVD exclusively through his website. The audio is also available for download through the usual online outlets (Amazon, iTunes, et al).
For the most part the album is like a greatest hits collection, with a few choice album cuts, and a few tributes to his musical influences, thrown in. Travis was never as traditional as most of his fellow Class of ’89 alumni, but his love and respect of country music have never been in doubt. While his real rockers like “Put Some Drive In Your Country” (which doesn’t appear here) wouldn’t translate well in an unplugged, it’s surprising how well others like “T-R-O-U-B-L-E’ do. It’s no surprise that the ballads — always his musical strength — work exceptionally well. “Help Me Hold On”, “Drift Off to Dream”, “Anymore”, and “Best of Intention (possibly my all-time favorite Travis Tritt song) are all represented here. So are mid- and uptempo numbers such as “It’ A Great Day to Be Alive”, “Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)” and “Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde”.
Singer-songwriter James Otto joins Travis on “Lord Have Mercy (On The Working Man)” and his good friend Marty Stuart shows up for “The Whiskey Ain’t Workin'” and an instrumental number called “Pickin’ At It”. There is a lot of banter, joking and reminiscing between the two old friends.
One of the biggest applause lines comes at the end of “Country Ain’t Country No More”, an underperforming single released in 2003 near the end of his chart reign. The song laments the loss of the country lifestyle and as it is winding up to a close, Tritt explains to the audience that there were some additional lyrics that were left off the studio version:
“You turn your radio on
And you wonder what for
‘Cause country ain’t country no more ….”
Amen, brother!
Tritt also spends a good bit of time paying homage to his musical heroes — Hank Williams, Jr (“The Pressure Is On”), Bobby Bare (“Five Hundred Miles Away From Home”), and Waylon Jennings (“Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” and “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys”). He also does a very slowed-down version of “I Walk The Line”, which works surprisingly well as a ballad, but nothing can compare to Johnny Cash’s original version.
Travis’ voice sounds a little gravelly in spots but it hasn’t lost any of its power or its ability to touch the listener’s soul. This is a generous collection that plays for nearly two hours and there’s not a dull moment to be found. I highly recommend it.
Grade: A
The Nash Icon movement, as I understood it, was meant to provide a platform for veteran artists where they wouldn’t have to compete with the younger generation for radio airplay. Why then, has nearly every Nash Icon artist released an album that still seems to be an attempt to rack up radio hits? Ronnie Dunn’s latest effort follows down the same trail that Hank Williams Jr, Martina McBride and Reba McEntire blazed ahead of him.
Tattooed Heart is Dunn’s inaugural release for the label. He co-produced the set with Jay DeMarcus. It consists of twelve songs written by some of Nashville’s finest, ranging from Liz Hengber, Steve Bogard and Bob DiPiero to Jim Beavers, Jon Randall and Tommy Lee James. Dunn had a hand in writing two of the songs, including the album’s best track “She Don’t Honky Tonk No More”, co-written with Nikki Hernandez and Andrew Rollins.
Dunn is joined by a couple of old friends on a pair of songs. His current single “Damn Drunk” features his former partner Kix Brooks, whose presence would go unnoticed if he weren’t credited on the label. Reba McEntire makes a more audible contribution on “Still Feels Like Mexico”, which I’m guessing will be the next single. The song itself isn’t particularly interesting, however. The album’s first single was “Ain’t No Trucks In Texas”, which peaked at #42 on the airplay chart last year.
The quality of the material itself is not in question and Ronnie Dunn’s voice remains one of the best in country music. What makes Tattooed Heart such a mixed bag is the production which is too heavy-handed on almost every track. “Ain’t No Trucks In Texas” is too loud, the strings are too intrusive on the otherwise very good “I Worship The Woman You Walked On” and ditto for the background vocalists on the 1950s-sounding title track. The self-penned “I Wanna Love Like That Again” is more restrained, although the song itself isn’t very country-sounding. The aforementioned “She Don’t Honky Tonk No More”, the album’s sole traditional song, is flawlessly executed. I wish the rest of the album were more in that vein; it’s more in line with what the target audience — those of us who have been Brooks & Dunn fans for nearly 25 years — really want to hear.
Grade: B-
The pair cover a Hank Williams Jr classic:
1956 (Sales): Heartbreak Hotel/I Was The One — Elvis Presley (RCA)
1956 (Jukebox): Heartbreak Hotel/I Was The One — Elvis Presley (RCA)
1956 (Disc Jockeys): Heartbreak Hotel — Elvis Presley (RCA)
1966: Distant Drums — Jim Reeves (RCA)
1976: What Goes On When the Sun Goes Down — Ronnie Milsap (RCA)
1986: Ain’t Misbehavin’ — Hank Williams, Jr. (Warner Bros./Curb)
1996: My Maria — Brooks & Dunn (Arista)
2006: Wherever You Are — Jack Ingram (Big Machine)
2016: H.O.L.Y. — Florida Georgia Line (Republic Nashville)
2016 (Airplay): Somewhere on a Beach — Dierks Bentley (Capitol)
In our look at Hank Jr’s early career we have been concentrating on material which is mostly out of print and unlikely to be released digitally. If your appetite has been whetted, and your budget doesn’t stretch to the big box set Paul recommended yesterday, you need to look at the few compilations available. The budget option is this 20-track CD originally released by a German label in 1996. The songs are all covers of classic country songs, well produced and sung but not really essential. They do make a reasonably priced introduction to this era of Hank Williams Jr’s work, although the selection of material is a bit unbalanced, and it would have been nice to have some original material.
Half a dozen tracks come from the album of Johnny Cash covers Hank Jr did in 1970
https://mykindofcountry.wordpress.com/2016/01/08/35756/ : a pleasant but sleepy cover of ‘Ring Of Fire’ fails to excite. ‘I Walk the Line’ is solid, and ‘Folsom Prison Blues works well apart from the self-referential lyric changes which made me roll my eyes. ‘I Guess Things Happen That Way’ is also very good, and ‘Give My Love To Rose’ is excellent. ‘Understand Your Man’ is another decent cut.
Two of his duets with Lois Johnson are included, the Everly Brothers’ ‘So Sad’, and country classic ‘Together Again’, both very nicely done.
Pop star Connie Francis joined Hank less successfully on another Everly Brothers’ tune, ‘Bye Bye Love’. Their voices do not combine very effectively, with a somber vocal from Hank contrasting with a bouncier one from Connie and a Nashville Sound orchestrated backing. The mismatch is even more marked on an ill-judged ‘Singing The Blues’ with Connie entirely too perky, with Jr sounding like he is copying his dad’s vocal stylings. She is better on ‘Please Help Me, I’m Falling’, which is prettily performed.
The sophisticated ballad ‘Make The World Go Away’ is smothered with strings and backing singers, but there is a fine vocal from Hank. ‘Sweet Dreams’ gets the same treatment, with a very strong, emotional vocal. ‘There Goes My Everything’ is pretty good, too. The sole song of his father’s is ‘Your Cheatin Heart’ is pretty good vocally, with a Nashville Soundproduction.
The Gold Rush tale ‘North To Alaska’ is highly entertaining and suits the robustness of Hank’s voice. Lefty Frizzell’s ‘I Love You A Thousand Ways’ is lovely, while Hank Jr is extremely good on a tasteful and believable take on ‘The Long Black Veil’. A brave take on ‘The Window Up Above’ is surprisingly good.
The tragic story of death in ‘The Blizzard’ feels a bit dated now (but currently topical given the weather conditions in part of the US).
I enjoyed listening to the cuts on this compilation, but I don’t think I’d pick them over the originals. However, as one of the few available records covering Hank Jr’s early years, it may be worth checking out.
Grade: B+
For the listener wanting a good overview of Hank Junior’s career with MGM Records, the best place to start is with this 3 CD boxed set released in 1992 by Polygram, the successor label to MGM.
The set is not perfect, far from it, but within its 82 tracks , it does a good job of showing the maturation process of Hank Williams, Jr. as a singer and as an artist. For a record label trying to give an overview of a major artist of the 1960s and 1970s the task is a daunting one. Not counting Christmas albums and hit collections, George Strait released 24 albums between 1981 and 2005. Using the same criteria, Hank released 29 albums between 1963 and 1975. Hank recorded quite a few more songs in thirteen years than did modern day icon Strait in twenty-five years. That’s a lot of songs for MGM/Polygram to wade through.
The set is essentially chronological, although it gives short shrift to the very earliest recordings. In one sense, this is a good thing in that it avoids the ridiculous pop duet album recorded with Connie Francis. In another sense, it is a bad thing in that it misses some of Hank’s efforts to break away from being a clone of his father. Missing are some of the more interesting album tracks from the albums Blue’s My Name and Ballads of The Hills and Plains and essential tracks from My Own Way (“I’m In No Condition”) and My Songs (“I Ain’t Sharin’ Sharon” and “I Wouldn’t Change A Thing About You [Except Your Name]”).
That’s not to say that the track on the collection are not worthy as they most certainly are worthy. It’s simply that the set should run one disc longer. If you listen carefully, you will find that this collection of songs represents Hank’s autobiography up to 1975 – it’s that powerful.
Included are twenty-five of Hank’s forty-one chart hits for MGM (including all six of his #1 singles), examples of Hank as a clone of his father, examples of Hank’s recordings while struggling with the ‘Nashville Sound’ (particularly “All For The Love of Sunshine”, a #1 hit with the Mike Curb Congregation), and the entire Hank Williams and Friends album that closed out his MGM career.
Along the way Hank showed sign of his versatility recording country classics, pop songs (“Endless Sleep”, “Splish Splash”), R&B classics such as Fats Domino’s “Aint That A Shame”, Joe Liggins’ “I’ve Got A Right To Cry”, Tony Joe White’s “Rainy Night In Georgia”, Smokey Robinson’s “My Girl” and a bunch of songs that he wrote himself, some of them really fine efforts. Not meaning to pick on George Strait, but there is more diversity of material and more challenging material in this box, than George has tacked in his thirty-five year recording career. Only Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard ever tackled such a far ranging repertoire.
This box set, for all my quibbles with it, is still an A+. It is still available and I would recommend it to anyone.
By 1974 Hank Jr was a mature vocalist but not a consistent hitmaker, with 1972’s ‘Eleven Roses’ remaining his sole #1 hit. Produced by MGM executive Jim Vienneau, Living Proof (often billed as featuring its big hit ‘I’ll Think Of Something’) showcases Hank Williams Jr at his traditional country best, before his change in direction.
The title track, ‘I’ll Think Of Something’, became familiar to a later generation of fans when it was covered by 90s star Mark Chesnutt who took the Bill Foster/Jerry Rice tune to the top of the charts in 1992. It was not quite such a big hit for Hank Jr, whose cut peaked at #7. I must confess that I prefer Chesnutt’s version, but Hank Jr’s original, swathed in strings, is still a fine recording with an emotional vocal and Hank trying out the bottom reaches of his voice.
The self-penned follow up ‘Angels Are Hard To Find’ reached the top 20. The earnest vocal works well and it’s a decent song the artist was to revisit later in his career.
He had not yet shaken off his father’s legacy altogether, and the album includes a very nice cover of ‘I Just Don’t Like This Kind Of Living’ treated very much like the original. There’s a certain uneasy frisson hearing Hank Jr singing a song his father wrote about his rocky marriage to his mother, though perhaps not as much as with the posthumous duet of the song recorded a decade earlier, but it is an excellent performance of a great song. He draws equally effectively on another country legend of his father’s generation with Lefty Frizzell’s ‘Confused’, with Hank Jr’s vocal inflections strongly influenced by Frizzell’s. (The song was the B-side of Frizzell’s 1965 hit ‘She’s Gone, Gone, Gone’.)
The excellent ‘Getting Over You’ should have been a single, as it is an outstanding song about a man whose heart breaks so badly he ends up committing suicide:
I sold my car to buy more wine
I hocked my watch
I’ve lost all track of time
Days with you went by so fast
Now I’m tryin’ to relive the past
You don’t know what I’ve been through
Getting over youI’ve tried to love other women
But I can’t
You’ve really made a mess
Out of what used to be a man
I thought I’d drowned the fire in others
But you’re still my only lover
You don’t know what I’ve been through
Getting over youI got some pills from a old doctor friend
The bottle said one every 12 hours for pain
But this pain I feel ain’t small
That’s why I took them one and all
It was something I had to do
To get over you
‘She Was Just Something To Do’ is an excellent cheating song, although the excuse may not have gone down too well the protagonist’s wife.
‘How Long Will You Keep Coming Back to Me’ is a country ballad written by Lamar Morris and Ronnie Hughes, and is pretty good. ‘Before You Fell Out Of Love With Me’ adopts the Nashville Sound in its arrangement, but again is a good song underneath, sung well. ‘Where She Left Off’ is another excellent heartbreak song with a string arrangement and a powerful vocal.
‘All I Had to Do’ is an easy-listening style sophisticated ballad with a downbeat lyric about heartbreak and a highly orchestrated backing.
This album may not appeal to fans of Hank Jr’s rock influenced material, and certain elements of the production have dated, but it remains an excellent record.
Grade: A
After fifteen assorted albums in roughly a five year period, MGM finally got around to releasing a live album on Hank Jr. Released in July 1969, MGM SE-4644 was the third of five albums MGM would release in 1969. To my knowledge the album has never been released in any digital format, although Polygram did reissue it on vinyl a few years later.
Cobo Hall (now the Cobo Center) in Detroit might seem a strange venue in which to record a country album, but judging from the album that emerged from the concert it was just fine. Built in 1960 and named for Albert E Cobo (Detroit Mayor 1950-1957), Cobo Hall was one of the nation’s first really large convention centers and I believe that Hank Williams Jr. – Live At Cobo Hall was the first time a major recording label had recorded an album at such a venue.
This 1969 album catches Hank Jr. at a time when he was beginning to be his own man, and not merely a clone of his famous father. While the album has the obligatory Hank Sr. songs, it also features his own hit “Standing In The Shadows” and some covers of more recent material
Side One of the album opens with “Jambalaya”, one of Hank Sr.’s hits. Written by Hank Sr. (possibly with Moon Mullican as co-writer although not so credited) Hank Jr. tackles the song with the proper tempo and enthusiasm.
Next up is the Mel Tillis – Danny Dill classic “Detroit City” which was a hit twice in 1963 by Billy Grammer (under the title “I Wanna Go Home”) and by Bobby Bare. Hank does a nice job with the song.
Hank shows his total comfort with rock songs on his fast take on the Joe South composition “Games People Play”. This would have made a good single but Freddy Weller, a member of the rock group Paul Revere & The Raiders who was attempting to forge a career in country music, beat Hank to the punch taking the song to #1 on the Cashbox and Record World country charts a few months earlier.
That Hank chose to record the song at all was a harbinger of things to come in country music. Until 1968 what some would describe as songs of social consciousness had been rare in country music, in fact aside from Johnny Cash’s songs, they been virtually non-existent. In 1968 three songs, Roy Clark’s “Do You Believe This Town”, Henson Cargill’s “Skip A Rope” and Jeannie C. Riley’s “Harper Valley PTA”, had cracked the door open further for this kind of material:
Oh the games people play now
Every night and every day now
Never meaning what they say now
Never saying what they meanWhile they wile away the hours
In their ivory towers
Till they’re covered up with flowers
In the back of a black limousineChorus
La-da da da da da da da
La-da da da da da de
Talking ’bout you and me
And the games people playOh we make one another cry
Break a heart then we say goodbye
Cross our hearts and we hope to die
That the other was to blameBut neither one ever will give in
So we gaze at an eight by ten
Thinking ’bout the things that might have been
And it’s a dirty rotten shame
It would be unthinkable for Hank to have done a live album without showcasing one of this own hits, so “Standing In The Shadows” is up next. The song got a rousing ovation from the audience.
I know that I’m not great
And some say I imitate
Anymore I don’t know
I’m just doing the best I canAfter all I’m standing in the shadows
Of a very famous man
The band is feature on an instrumental, the recent Flatt & Scruggs hit (from the movie Bonnie and Clyde)”Foggy Mountain Breakdown”. It is a good rendition although the banjo player is definitely not in Earl Scrugg’s league. Snippets of several other songs are performed within this track (in jazz they call these ‘signatures’).
Side One closes out with an effective version of another Hank Sr. classic “You Win Again”.
Side Two opens with a classic George Jones song penned by Dickey Lee Lipscomb & Steve Duffy, “She Thinks I Still Care”. Hank Jr. isn’t George Jones (who is?) but he handles the song quite well.
Conway Twitty had a many #1 records in his illustrious career but “Darling You Know I Wouldn’t Lie” (#1 Cashbox / #1 Record World / #2 Billboard) is barely remembered today. Hank’s version opens with a nice steel guitar intro – in fact, the steel dominates the whole arrangement. This Wayne Kemp-Red Lane classic is the kind of song Conway Twitty really excelled at, and I really like Hank’s take on the song:
Here I am late again for the last time
And like I promised I just told her goodbye
Please believe me for this time it’s really over
And darling you know I wouldn’t lieDidn’t I come and tell you about her
How temptation lured she and I
Now I know it was only fascination
And darling you know I wouldn’t lieI had to let her down easy as slow as I could
After all she’s got feelings too
But it took a little longer than I thought it would
But this time she knows we’re really throughShe wanted to hold me forever
And this lipstick shows her final try
And these tears on my shoulders are proof that she failed
And darling you know I wouldn’t lie
And darling you know I wouldn’t lie
The album closes with three Hank Sr. songs. In his earliest recordings Hank Jr. tried to be a clone of his father, but by now he was putting his stamp on the material.
There are many who consider “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” as the greatest country song ever written (personally I’m torn between this song, “El Paso”, and “The Last Letter”), but it is a great song, even if Hank Jr.’s version does not live up to his father’s version (no one else’s version does either). It’s a great song and should be appreciated for what it is.
This is followed by “Your Cheatin’ Heart”; again Hank Jr. cannot quite get that lonesome sound in his voice that his father does, but he does a fine job. For whatever reason, “Your Cheatin’ Heart” is not listed on the album cover, which caused me to think this was a shorter album than is actually the case.
The album closes with “I Saw The Light”. Country albums and live country shows frequently closed with gospel songs during this period of time. Unfortunately that tradition faded away in the 1970s
Unfortunately I was unable to find definitive information on the musicians playing on this album. Even PragueFrank’s website did not provide any information. Suffice it to say, it’s a very good band with a proficient steel player, a competent banjo and an excellent honky-tonk style pianist. I hope someday this gets released in a digital format with the missing tracks restored as bonus tracks. By the time this album was issued Hank Jr. had already scored a few more hits on non-Hank Sr. material, so I presume he might performed a few of them.
A few years ago I did an article on the twenty-five greatest live country albums. At that time, I placed this album sixteenth on my list, docking it a bit for the short playing time (based on the album’s back cover). The actual playing time is actually around thirty-two minute, which still seems too short – the album ended with me wanting more.
Obviously I give this album a solid A.
Hank Williams, JR followed Removing The Shadow with another duets record with Lois Johnson. Released in 1972, Send Me Some Lovin’ was Hank’s twentieth release for MGM Records.
The ten-track album was dominated by Hank’s versions of cover tunes. The title track was originally sung by the likes of Buddy Holly, Little Richard and Otis Redding. The pair transforms the ballad into a solid honky-tonker complete with ample steel guitar and appealing drum work.
“Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line” becomes charmingly playful in their hands, with the pair trading verses, as Hank turns cautionary as the song becomes about her father. The arrangement is faithful to the song, but strong nonetheless.
I first came to know “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” when Neil McCoy had a version I adored twenty years ago. I soon came to learn the song’s origins date back to Eddy Arnold. Hank and Lois sing beautifully, but the production is horrendous. I hate the early 1970s sheen on the track, which might’ve been hip at the time, but horribly dates the proceedings today.
Johnny Paycheck had the original version of “Someone To Give My Love To” before it was covered by the likes of Connie Smith and Tracy Byrd. Hank and Lois had their shot with the song, too, and their version is a lovely and tender ballad that I quite like.
“Why Should We Try Anymore” was originally made famous by Hank Sr. Hank and Lois turn in a stunning reading complete with delightful steel and a delicious ache in their voices. The pair also recorded “You’re Gonna Change (Or I’m Gonna Leave)” to similar results.
The album as a whole is a delightful affair even if it falls victim to the trappings of early 1970s music. The pair, whom I’d never heard sing together before, are wonderful together. Like a lot of music from this time, Send Me Some Lovin’ isn’t of my era so I’m not terribly familiar with the majority of songs. I really liked what I heard, though, even if I couldn’t really connect with it.
Grade: B
My Kind of Country 