Customer Reviews

The Unreleased Recordings

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This set is an astonishingly great addition to Hank Williams' recorded legacy. The 54 songs are all previously unreleased (28 of which are the only existing versions recorded by Hank Williams). These are peak-period 'Live In The Studio' recordings that equal or surpass the quality of Williams' studio masters in performance and sound quality (with a few exceptions). Some songs are preceded or followed by studio chatter, conversation, introductions or promotion of the sponsor's product (Mother's Best Flour)--and the effect is like having Hank Williams and his band in the room with you, performing his hits, personal favorite songs and brand new compositions, just for you circa 1951, if you could time travel. And now you can.

Unbelievable! This is like finding the end of a rainbow for Hank's fans. Joe Palmaccio (credited with sound restoration and mastering) deserves to have his picture printed on folding money. I have over the years come into the possession of unreleased performances (like a different version of this collection's first mind-blowing cut "Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain," which even has another verse); but the sound quality is nothing as good as that of most all of the songs on here; some of it sounds just like a studio record from the period.

And like a studio record, Hank is singing each song 110%. The hair on the back of my neck was up from beginning to end. It's a great day for Hank's fans to be alive! I'm one of the devoted fan who would have walked across Texas in July just for the privilege of paying 10 times what these recordings cost, and still considered myself lucky; this has to be the best buy in music history. Thankfully "The Complete Hank Williams" (which is friggin excellent, by the way) was misnamed. If "On Top of Old Smoky" or "I'll Sail My Ship Alone" don't become current radio hits, then there's little hope for mankind left. The opener on Disc 2, "I Can't Help it if I'm Still in Love With You," again, is worth the cost of this whole collection, as would be just all the banter and talking on them. What a treasure trove.
A heartfelt 'thank you' to all who made this friggin incredible collection possible. It's the best thing to happen to Hank's fans in at least a decade; I feel sorry for all Hank's fans who never got to hear this collection; this must be how winning the lottery feels.

Rabid Shutterbug
Montgomery, Alabama

I don't know where to start my praise for this set -- I could start at its mere existence, almost 60 years from the date of the original broadcasts. Or I could marvel at the astonishing sound quality of most of these cuts -- indeed overall it is better than the studio cuts, and I'm sure much care has been devoted to the restoration. Or I could focus on the emotive delivery, the pleasure of listening to Hank's mournful wail, how his love of the music shows through in every verse, and how the accompaniment, especially the steel guitar, provides the ideal backdrop to that voice.

PS there's an amazing booklet will all kinds of interesting photos!

The first installment of a three year project of what will eventually be a 143 song release of the Mother's Best Radio Programs leaves the listener speechless.
It's that good!
Although a few of these tracks surfaced in bootleg form in the 80s,this is such a great mastering job it's like hearing Hank for the fist time.
Of particular interest is the heartfelt rendering of numerous Gospel standards with full background harmonies not heard in the MGM studio recordings.
In addition,Hank's Martin Guitar is mixed way up front and adds a rich musical depth to the procedings.
Songs like Hank's "Dear John" and his interpretation of "Cherokee Boogie " clearly point the way toward primitive Rockabilly.
The packaging and design are first rate,and appropriately compliment this treasure chest of so much cultural and musical significance.
Colin Escott's in-depth track by track annotation clearly sets the bar at a stratopheric level.It simply doesn't get better than this.
I only hope that the other installments are moved up on the release schedule so we don't have to wait any longer than necessary for the completion of this masterwork.

I know I'm 70, but Hank Williams has made me feel like I'm 13 again with the release of these 54 songs from 1951 radio shows. This is the most pleasant listening experience I've had in years. When these shows were made, I was busy collecting as much Hank Williams music as I could afford. At 79 cents for a new 45 rpm release and a quarter for used records out of jukeboxes, that was a major purchase for a kid making it on a weekly allowance. I am familiar with many of the Acuff-Rose songs made famous by others, particularly Roy Acuff and Johnnie & Jack, but Hank adds a special touch to these numbers. A real shocker is announcer Cousin Louie Buck's spoof of the Ink Spots when Hank sings "If I Didn't Love You". That would be unthinkable on the air in 2008, but I understand how it was OK in 1951. These performances lend more credibility to my claim that I was lucky to know country music when it really was country. It doesn't get any better than this. The exchanges between Hank and Cousin Louie Buck and the band demonstrate what a truly great man Hank was. Despite his poverty stricken youth, his lack of education, poor health, and self-inflicted problems, he was a genius who understood us humans better than most of us do. We already knew that but this box confirms it again.

The liner notes do not include any easy reference section for recording dates. I find that to be an annoying mark of carelessness on TimeLife's part.
But...the music is fantastic and everyone should rush out and buy this despite my trivial complaint.

Hank Williams fans owe a deep debt of gratitude to Jet Williams. By releasing these recordings she has reaffirmed Hank Williams as the gold standard in country music. These "lost" records are resplendent with those elements that Hank always brought to the stage. I can think of no other way to experience Hank Williams performing, short of actually being there, that could surpass this compendium. The production and recording quality is superb. I highly recommend this set to anyone who likes country or gospel music or to any aspiring songwriters. Also, I can't believe how affordable this set is priced. I would easily have paid twice as much for it.

The man who gave Hank Williams his sound, Don Helms, his steel guitarist, died August 11, 2008. This occurred as this set was being readied for release.
Don recalled that he and Hank were once playing an outdoor venue when it began to rain. Hank and the band took cover under an enclosed area, but Hank's fans were caught in the deluge. Hank looked over his soaked fans, who had not budged and were still awaiting his next song. Hank walked into the downpour and announced,
"If you folks have the guts to listen to me in the rain, then I've got the guts to sing to you in the rain!"
And so Hank finished the show in the rain. Hank considered every person his brother and sister.

Sure, Hank lived long ago, but so did Washington and Lincoln and Christ. The Empire State Building is even older than Hank's songs, but that doesn't stop us from admiring the building, which towers over its newer and less interesting counterparts.
THE UNRELEASED SET only adds to the allure of this melancholy genius. Hank transcends country music and transcends time. Like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, be belongs to the ages. What Johnny Cash accomplished in 48 years, Hank accomplished in only six.

Some comments on this set--
1. I own 65 of the 72 Mother's Best shows and was always unhappy with their sound quality, but these songs are top notch. Still, the bass should have been higher and the treble lower. Some reviewers have complained that the shows are not complete, but having to fast-forward through a series of shows just to hear a particular song is a chore. At some point in the next few years, Time-Life will no doubt release the entire 18 hours of shows for historical purposes and at a cost of $200+.
Go ahead and buy this listenable set at its modest price.
2. "Blue Eyes Cring in the Rain"-- There were two (2) versions of this song by Hank. This is the longer version, with a musical bridge supplied by fiddler Jerry Rivers and steel guitarist Don Helms. The better-known shorter version floating around the internet is an oddity. It's from a mysterious Mother's Best show or show fragment which is unaccounted for on the Mother's Best website.
3. "Lonely Tombs"-- There were three (3) versions of this song by Hank. This is, disappointingly, one of the shorter two versions. On his very last show, Hank did the best, longest, and most emotional version of "Lonely Tombs." It contained a third verse,
"I then came to the place where my mother did lay,
And her voice , soft and low, from the tomb,
It said, 'Son, I'm at rest with the savior above,
I am safe in my heavenly home.'"
Why doesn't the set use the longer, better version? Perhaps there was a problem with its sound quality.
4. "Cool Water"-- Hank starts in the key of C but changes his mind and rachets it up to D. Hank's solo version of "Cool Water," on THE COMPLETE HANK WILLIAMS, is performed in the key of C.
5. Folks, lots of good material remain for the next set. My favorites include "Lonesome Whistle" and "My Sweet Love ain't Around." The latter is performed one show after "I'm so Lonesome I could Cry," and Hank compares the two. The Mother's Best version has different lyrics from the studio version:
"Memories come back to haunt me,
My dream house has just fell down--
This old world is dark around me
'Cause my sweet love ain't around.
Something telle me that I'm losin,'
'Cause these weary blues I've found--
Lawd, my baby left this mornin'
And now my sweet love ain't around."

I hope you've enjoyed my review and see my reviews for THE COMPLETE HANK WILLIAMS AND the HEALTH AND HAPPINESS SHOWS. E-mail me at geraldlrussell@hotmail.com.

Finally, Time-Life, when will you do a set of Hank's overdubs from the years immediately after his death? Don Helms was a part of these. The MGM lp, THE LONESOME SOUND OF HANK WILLIAMS especially deserves a transfer. If you've lost the tapes, see me. I bought a sealed version of the lp in 2006 and it is in mint condition.

It's rare that an artist who's been turned into an icon can ever again be seen in mortal form. But such is the case for the Hank Williams heard on these three CDs of transcriptions from 1951. With these fifty-four previously unreleased tracks, the dark saint of country music is delivered from fifty-five years of canonization as a hard-working musician striving to please his audience. Williams' much anthologized commercial recordings will forever keep his star aloft, but these newly released live-in-the-studio renderings, waxed under the sponsorship of Mother's Finest for radio broadcast, crackle with a level of intensity and vocal clarity not always captured in MGM's studios. Best of all, 1951 was a "career year" for Willliams, a year in which his artistry and superstardom hit simultaneous peaks. The crush of fame drew him repeatedly to the road and exacerbated the need to pre-record his 15-minute shows for Mother's Best, rendering into lacquer a one-of-a-kind portrait of Williams as artist and entertainer.

Williams filled each fifteen minute program with his own classic songs as well as numerous covers. Chestnuts like "On Top of Old Smokey" are lit up with emotional fire, and his soaring solo vocal on "Cool Water" resounds with the drama of thirst and relief. A large helping of hymns are equally impressive as Williams and his Drifiting Cowboys testify in close harmony, and the recitations of alter ego Luke the Drifter are recounted on "Pictures from Life's Other Side." The portrait drawn includes details of Williams' influences, but it's the picture of a living, breathing performer that's so breathtakingly compelling. The ephemeral nature of these recordings - they were intended to be aired on the radio with no thought of commercial issue - renders the mood more relaxed than was routinely fostered in a regular studio date. The sheer volume of material Williams performed (this is only the first of several sets that will cover these recordings) creates a looseness that unwinds the fabrications of the recording industry. Williams' aside, "I like this one," as he launches into the fourth verse of "Dear John" is a humanizing touch that shows how comfortable he was with other writers' material, and how easily his charm translated to the stage.

Time-Life has cherry-picked the original shows, rather than providing raw transfers of the transcription discs. Listeners get a taste of the original shows' continuity through snippets of song introductions, but the bulk of Williams' patter has been trimmed away in favor of musical selections. The non-chronological ordering also dispels the shows' original performance arcs, but the producers have sequenced their picks terrifically and the overall result yields a superior experience for most listeners. These choices may displease archivists, completists and old-time radio fans, but Time-Life no doubt figured this approach would have the broadest appeal, helping defray the cost of securing reissue rights and remastering the original discs. Perhaps a full program could be released separately or included as a bonus in one of the upcoming releases of additional Mother's Best material.

Other than minor audio artifacts on a few tracks (e.g., a crackle in the background of "I Dreamed That the Great Judgment Morning"), the sound quality of these recordings is simply astonishing, with Williams' voice clear and edgy, his band evenly balanced behind him, and steel player Don Helms and fiddler Jerry Rivers prominently featured in the mixes. Though primitive, the direct-to-disc technology used in 1951 captured the live sound with brilliance and clarity. The transfers (by Alan Stoker) and restorations/remasterings (by should-be Grammy-winner Joe Palmaccio) are superb, and Jett Williams' introductory notes provide a quick history of the original acetates and the lawsuits that have swirled around them. Colin Escott's liner and song notes are detailed and informative, and the 40-page booklet (which is unfortunately stapled into the folder) is beautifully designed and filled with photos.

These are among the best performances Williams ever laid down on record, and among the truest recordings anyone ever made of him. You could remove "among" and still be right. Given Williams' acclaim and the scrutiny given to his career, it's mind-boggling that these discs were bottled up for nearly sixty years. This set is so musically riveting and artistically revealing as to obsolete traditional hit compendiums as the best introduction to Williams' genius. An emotional veil has been lifted between Williams and his fans; a veil previously unknown to all but those fans who were by their radios in '51. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

I've owned this set for a week and I've played it every day. It's THAT good. For years, box sets have been the same old hits and misses in new packages. This set contains 54 completely unheard recordings by one of the absolute, uncontested giants of country music...make that AMERICAN music. I bought mine on Amazon for $29.99, and that's cheaper than downloads. Plus you get better sound, a fabulous book, and photos I'd never seen. Personally, I don't understand the carping about wanting more chatter. I've got sets with chatter on them, and sure it's interesting once or twice, but I want the music not the chatter. Five stars? How about ten.