Amazon.com
"Most people don't understand that Hank Williams was preaching to them just as fervently as a Baptist preacher on Sunday," the songwriter Harlan Howard has said. But sometimes he used a pulpit. On
I Saw the Light Williams administers directly to the soul in 12 songs of redemption ("How Can You Refuse Him Now"), salvation ("Jesus Remembered Me"), and warning ("The Angel of Death"). From the title cut on, these performances throb with unsettling power, since they come from a man who knew he'd soon meet his maker, and who already looked pre-dead, a comely corpse in a Nudie suit. If such naked spiritual yearning is strictly passé in today's hip country marketplace, Williams's passion is as stark and bone-rattling as it gets. Don't be surprised if you end up on your knees.
--Alanna Nash