Hank Williams: The Complete Mother's Best Recordings...Plus! (15CD/1DVD) [Box set]

Hank Williams Sr. | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 5, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 16
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Time Life Entertainment
• ASIN: B0040ZA20E
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,949 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Review

It's hard to decide which is more extraordinary about a new collection of vintage Hank Williams radio shows: the music or the brilliant snapshot they offer of a vanishing moment in American life. --New York Daily News

There's magic in these radio shows, meant to be ephemeral and now captured for eternity, like a soap bubble preserved in a box. The result is a prismatic view of an iconic performer. --All Things Considered

The box's recordings are amazingly clear and crisp. That's no small feat since they were originally acetates that survived six decades. --Dallas Morning News

Product Description

Deluxe/Limited/Special Edition Details: 15 CDs, 1 DVD, 1 poster, 1 hardcover book in a collector's "radio" box with sound chip.

ULTIMATE BOX SET OF HANK WILLIAMS AT HIS PRIME.

At the peak of his career in 1951 Hank Williams recorded 143 songs for the Mother's Best Flour Company radio shows. He sang with his regular studio band and recorded his hits as well as songs he never recorded commercially anywhere else.
From this amazing legacy, Time Life is proud to release the deluxe box set of THE COMPLETE MOTHER'S BEST RECORDINGS...PLUS!, a historic 15 CD + 1 DVD collection drawn from the Mother's Best recordings.

It's a rare, informal glimpse into the heart and soul of country music's greatest star who passed away on New Year's Day 1953, at age 29.
These days, we count ourselves lucky if we find an alternate take or two by any late giant of American music. To find hours upon hours of music and talk is truly without precedent. Set the time machine for 1951.

The Complete Grammy-Nominated Collection now available on Amazon.com. Limited edition, deluxe box set, with many performances available here for the first time. This collection increases the number of Hank Williams recordings by 50%! Painstakingly restored sound, by Grammy® winner Joe Palmaccio.

Bonus DVD, featuring a moving conversation with the last two members of Hank's Mother's Best Band. A 108-page beautifully illustrated hard covered book with many previously unpublished photos and related memorabilia. With an Introduction by Hank Williams, Jr. and Afterword by Jett Williams. Also included is a poster-sized map chronicling Hank's punishing 1951 schedule.

Box dimensions: 10 inches (tall), 9 inches (wide), 7.25 inches (deep). Hank Williams like you've never heard him before!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishing Hank Williams' vault find - the Mothers' Best mother lode May 28, 2011

By hyperbolium

Format:Audio CD

In 2008 Time-Life released the brilliant Unreleased Recordings box set. The fifty-four previously unreleased tracks cherry-picked live-in-the-studio recordings from Williams' 1951 Mothers' Best radio show. The acetate transcriptions showed off a directness and intensity that wasn't always found in MGM's studios, and illuminated a new side of a superstar whose biography had long since transcended to folk lore. At the time of the box set's release there was debate as to whether it was right to excerpt the musical selections from the original 15-minute radio programs, and there was much clamoring for the original full-length transcriptions. Time Life's new fifteen CD set presents the original acetates in their full glory - seventy-two programs totaling over eighteen hours, and may remind you to be careful of what you wish for!

As illuminating as were the songs excerpted for the previous box, the intact radio programs add yet another dimension to Williams' personal and professional personalities. The very circumstance of their recording, waxed for broadcast when his heavy touring schedule prevented him from broadcasting live, speaks to the career peak Williams achieved in 1951. Not only was he selling records and filling seats at concerts, but he was writing some of his most revered original songs. Two of these, "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I Can't Help it (If I'm Still in Love With You)" even received their public debuts on his radio program. Williams lights up numerous country and western chestnuts, sings hymns and spirituals with his Drifting Cowboys, and gives recitations. There's a wealth of obscure and rare material among these recordings....

Williams performs with the ease of a seasoned performer rummaging around for something to entertain the folks, enticing them to stay tuned through the commercials and to come out to his live performances. Although recorded for later broadcast on WSM, these performances have the informality and spontaneity of live radio programs. Williams' asides are clearly unscripted and unrehearsed, and at only twenty-seven (and just a couple of years from his untimely death), he married the fire of youth with the poise of artists decades his senior. The music is an obvious goldmine, but the continuity - the commercials, ad lib asides and joshing with those in the studio - draws a distinct picture of, to quote Hank Jr. "a young man on top of his world."

A great DJ or radio talk show host can create a personal connection with their listeners, and Williams had the talent. He showed off his quick wit and drew listeners into the party taking place in the studio. But unlike a DJ or talk host, Williams both spoke and sang, seamlessly weaving together his conversations, announcements, introductions and songs into an effortlessly magnetic whole. Even a minor gaffe of live radio, such as an announcer's momentary forgetfulness, is turned into material as everyone breaks up and the joke is shared with the listeners. Williams' band is exceptional, responding on a dime as their leader calls out a song, and playing in perfect balance to the microphone. Fiddler Jerry Rivers and steel player Don Helms are real standouts and often featured. Williams' wife Audrey, who was the motor behind his career, also sings a few, but with more charm than vocal talent.

The transcriptions have some minor audio artifacts and scattered surface noise, but it rarely distracts from the astonishing clarity and presence of these recordings. Engineer Joe Palmaccio has restored these recordings with the deftness of an artisan, and the catalog and performances are beyond compare - even to Williams' much revered studio catalog. As with the previous box, it boggles the mind that country music's greatest ever artist should have his music catalog so vastly expanded more than fifty years after his passing. Bonus material includes a 1952 program on which Williams auditions for a show sponsored by Aunt Jemima, a musical-story public service announcement warning of the dangers of venereal disease, and a DVD featuring interviews with Williams band members Don Helms and Bill Lester.

Colin Escott's liner notes are superb and should net him a Grammy. He provides informative and entertaining context for the songs and performers, and explains many references that would escape modern day listeners. For example, you might know that Pee Wee King was born Julius Kuczynski, but you probably didn't know he was prone to swearing in Polish when he was mad! The packaging matches the grandness of the recordings, with a 108-page book that includes full-panel vintage photos, reproductions of various ephemera, detailed biographies of the key show participants, an introduction by Hank Jr. and an afterword by Jett Williams. The set is housed in an antique-style radio box that even plays a few audio snippets at the turn of a knob.

This is an astonishing new portrait of an artist most fans thought they already knew intimately, especially after the 2008 release of the shows' musical elements. What the full radio programs reveal is a completely different side of an artist whose popular image, particularly in historical retrospect, was defined by the tenor of his songs and his singing. What emerges is a preternaturally talented performer who wrote and sang decades beyond his age, and, in contrast to the pain etched into his lyrics, was personally buoyant and friendly and funny. Those who sat by their radio in 1951 may have already known this, but the rest of us are just finding out that Williams' was more than an iconic singer and songwriter, he was also a crackerjack pitchman and offered his fans a warm, entertaining human presence. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com] Read more ›

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Mother's Best is Simply Best May 13, 2011

By Mr. Nigel O. Brown

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

This landmark recording doubles Hank Williams' recorded output and by a much larger factor highlights the enduring integrity and genius of this iconic performer. The reviewer who complains about the repetitive Mother's Best advertisements and station identification misses the point on almost every level; the recordings and their presentation don't exactly make one feel like a 1950s "shut in" having breakfast prior to working the farm, but they do both hugely entertain and convey a time and place like almost no other contemporary recording could do.

The valve-radio set presentation box (complete with functioning front dial and mini-recording!) underline the limitations of MP3 downloads - try achieving this experience on an iPod.

A beautifully packaged, beautifully mastered and historic set of recordings.

Long live acetate!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 1951 all over again April 27, 2011

By Jim Z VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Unless you were listening at 7:15 to WSM in 1951 , you have not yet heard these recordings like this yet.
As another reviewer said , there is a lot of talking on these discs. They are all 15 minute radio shows used to feature 3 or 4 music selections , as well as promotional spots for Mother's Best flour.
Although the ads can be repetitive , it is the overall charm and home-spun nature of these recordings that make the whole project work----oh , and of course , Hank Williams.
If you are a follower of Hank----you need this

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What can you say? February 12, 2012

By Hankman

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

For years we collectors of Hank's music have listened to scratchy bootleg versions of these in varying quality. Some bootlegs were fairly good while some were terrible. Whatever the case might be it was vintage Hank Williams and not available commercially. I can remember talking to Kira Florita via e-mail and her saying her fear was these would never be commercially available. Here we are years later and we can finally enjoy these in their entirety as the general public did in the 1950's.

I am amazed, and no one has shed any light on this topic when I've brought it up, that MGM never got their hands on these. They got ahold of Health and Happiness as well as the Johnny Fair Syrup shows and hit a goldmine of LP releases with those recordings. It's a shame that we've had to wait almost 60 years for the first legal release of these shows.

A handful of the songs were played on The Music Country Network's Hank special in the late 80's and a LP album (bootleg) of the songs appeared for a while made from those recordings. I also heard a local radio station play "I'll Sail My Ship Alone" on their oldies show several years before the release of this set, so the songs have been floating around out there for a long time as I mentioned before.

The sound quality is a bit of an issue. I don't expect 60 year old recordings to be perfect and surface noise wise I'm sure there wasn't much that could be fixed. I've heard bootlegs of the Aunt Jemima and VD spots that were cleaner noise wise but not nearly as clear sounding either, so I'll take the clarity with a spat of noise here and there anytime. I do believe these could have been made a little less "tinny" but perhaps the idea was to give the listener the feel of hearing it live on AM radio.

Mr.... Escott, while I don't always agree with you, the liner notes were spot on, sir!!! 10 stars, Colin!!! I sat glued to my seat reading the liner notes.

Is it too much to ask that we get the rest of the Hank stuff floating around on CD? There are still the WSFA acetates, the Sunset Park concert and various other things roaming around out there. Oh, can we please have the overdubbed Mother's Best recordings as well? Read more ›

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Country Music Holy Grail November 24, 2011

By Tunaofthemall

Format:Audio CD

Con: Sort of Expensive.
Pro: Worth Every Penny, and then some.

I'm in my fifties. I have been collecting music my entire life. And I have to say, this is one of the great musical Finds-Releases of all times. The recordings litterally place you as a fly on the wall of history in the presence of a Country Music God. Many of the recordings are better than the official releases. Also, lot's of songs that have never been heard on record from Hank. Incredible. Another reviewer critized the recordings as having "Too much talking". Well that's his opinion. I disagree. I love all the talking. The bantor between Hank, Cousin Louie Buck, Bur-Head, etc., is just priceless. If you like Hank Williams, this is really a must. I would give this 10 Stars if I could.