2
Your Take – Unfinished Hank Williams Songs
Last week it was announced that country singer Jennifer Brantley had released a song the was written by Hank Williams, at least partially written by Hank Williams, and then finished by the request of Hank’s widow Audrey by Glenn Douglas Tubb, nephew of Ernest Tubb and a prolific songwriter. The song is called “Heratbroken, Forsaken, and Alone.” You can read the whole story about how the song was finished and how Brantley was picked as the performer in this MySpace blog and you can hear the song on Jennifer Brantley’s MySpace.
This story reminded me of the still unresolved mystery from this Spring about Bob Dylan acquiring 20-25 unfinished Hank Williams songs and then handing them out to various people, including Jack White to finish them. Since that story broke, there has been no further word about it, no release date, nothing. But since songs flowed from Hank Williams like water from the mountains, it makes you wonder how many other unfinished songs might be out there, owned by the fractured and sometimes contentious Hank Williams estate (Jr. & Jett principally), or by other private parties.
The new Jennifer Brantley song seems to be done in good taste, and since it was authorized by Audrey, the closest link to Hank, I feel a little more comfortable about it. But it seems a little weird, if not wrong, to take unfinished songs and act like you can complete the original thought. These songs, finished or not, are still works of art, and almost hold their own intrigue because they are unfinished. If someone wants to take one and record their own take on it, great, but why not publish them in their original form first, since this is as close to the essence of the song as we can get?
And why are we so quick to interject celebrity in the process? Why not use artists like Wayne Hancock or Hank III, whose writing style is most similar to that of Hank Williams, or at least include them in the process? These are songs that would have been the foundation of what country music is today, by the man who made country music into a popular art form and changed the landscape for American music forever.
What do you think? What should be done with the unfinished Hank Williams songs?
28
When It’s OK to “Go Country”
We like to rag on people around here like Jennifer Love Hewitt and 80′s pop star “Tiffany” for “Going Country.” This has prompted a few to criticize me and others for thinking anyone that didn’t start in country cannot “go country” or dabble in the music, or that I have some predisposed problem with rock influences mixing with country.
So I wanted to compile a few examples of when it has been good for artists to “go country,” and hopefully I will turn a few people on to some great country music, performed by non-traditional country artists.
Jack White:
One of country purist’s prerequisites for someone “going country” is that they pay more than just lip service to the legends and traditions of country music, and what better way to do that than to team up with Loretta Lynn. In 2004, Jack White (The White Stripes, Racounters) produced and played on Lynn’s Van Lear Rose album. White encouraged Lynn to write her own songs for the album, and this one of the standout tracks:
There are country influences in a lot of Jack White’s music, and I wouldn’t count out a full on country project from him in the future.
Mike Ness:
The leader of California punk band Social Distortion has a solid country solo career that has produced some great songs and albums. His first album Cheating at Solitaire featured great original songs and performances by Bruce Springsteen and Brian Setzer. He also released the album Under the Influences of country covers.
On a side note, Mike Ness is the only male artist approved by Saving Country Music to wear eyeliner.
Jerry Lee Lewis & Bob Dylan:
It wouldn’t be a proper list if I didn’t look to the past for a few examples. After his rock career went down in a blaze of scandal, Jerry Lee Lewis re-emerged by beginning a full fledged country career. Far from a marketing ploy, Jerry Lee put out some of the best piano-based country music I have ever heard. If you ever find a vinyl copy of one of his Country Music Hall of Fame Hits volumes, don’t pass it up.
Another oldtimer that went country was Bob Dylan. His album Nashville Skyline might be one of the best country albums ever cut. Recorded in Nashville with country set musicians, and with an appearance by his friend Johnny Cash, this album is about as good as it gets.
Beck:
Though he’s never officially put out a complete country project, Beck is about the only artist in my opinion who has successfully blended country influences with what could be considered “techno” or “hip-hop”; things involving turntables and such. It has been tried many times and failed, and one reason that I think Beck can do this in a respectable manner is because he approaches the music from a respectful point of view.
On an album called Stereopathetic Soulmanure, an album you can’t get except for in bootleg form, Beck does a couple of outright country songs with steel guitar and all. One of them is the song “Rowboat,” which is probably one of my top 20 country songs of all time, and probably my #1 from a non-country performer. Johnny Cash took a shine to the tune as well, and covered it as the opening track to his Unchained album.
Here is Cash and Beck talking about the song:
Beck wrote and recorded the song while recording Mellow Gold, his big debut album, so he wrote the song before he was a well-known, national artist.
– - – - – - – -
So not every non-country artist or actor (like Billy Bob Thorton, for example) who wants to stick their toe in the country waters has to worry about it getting bitten of by country purists. The main the is the approach by the artist. If they want to “go country” as a marketing ploy, they take a risk. Some have been successful, like Hootie and the Blowfish’s Darius Rucker. And sometimes it goes over like a poop in a punch bowl, like Jessica Simpson. The main thing is that their heart truly has to be in the music. Country music has a way of starring into the soul of artists and exposing the truth. That is why I still have some faith in our tarnished genre.
23
The Fraud of Pop Country EXPOSED !!
Don’t believe me??
From an article about ‘Pro Tools’ from the Nashville Scene:
/“So what is this demon Pro Tools? It’s a digital recording system at the center of the debate about how technological advancements affect the sound and creation of music. The most heated issue involves a specific device, the auto-tuner—digital computer software that allows a note that’s sung off-pitch to be corrected or, as common parlance has it, “fixed in the mix.”
“In the bluntest terms, auto-tuning allows a singer or instrumentalist to flub a note and later have it mended digitally by a computer. An imperfect vocal performance can come out sounding like every word was sung perfectly .., even if the performer couldn’t sing an entire song in tune to save his or her life.
“Some see this as cheating. Even worse, some believe the music industry has entered a “twilight zone” in which marginally talented yet attractive performers can be packaged and turned into mega-stars. Meanwhile, truly gifted yet less magnificent physical specimens are left to struggle in the shadows or are pushed aside altogether.
“Then there’s the related question: Does modern music’s obsession with “perfection” process out the peculiarities that, in the past, resulted in some of the best-loved records and most revered artists in popular music? Imagine Johnny Cash being auto-tuned. Or Hank Williams. Or, for that matter, Mick Jagger, Louis Armstrong and Bob Dylan. All of them sang off-key at times; some of them rarely, if ever, hit a “correct” note. Each of them typically hit the “right” one, though: Their performances are legendary, despite—or maybe because of—their imperfections. In modern-day Nashville, though, perfection is definitely the goal. No wrong notes here. (Well, not many.) And each artist has his or her own way of attaining that goal.
Yes my friends, you read correctly. Maybe not all, but certainly a lot of Nashville and other pop singer’s couldn’t carry their tune inside a bucket, whether it has a hole in it or not.
I stumbled upon this when I was doing research about the Bob Dylan / Hank Williams unfinished songs controversy I wrote about HERE . Like I said at the time, that story has many tentacles, and one of them was that Jack White (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs) was one of the people who was recruited by Dylan to help finish at least one of the Hank Williams songs.
Well Jack White also helped Loretta Lynn put out an album Van Lear Rose. I’ve heard some say great things about it, and others pan it. But according to the Nashville Scene article:
” . . . he (Jack) refused to work in any of Music Row’s state-of-the-art studios. “We weren’t going to use Pro Tools or any kind of trickery to make it sound perfect,” he said. “I wanted it to be soulful. I didn’t want it to sound like a modern Nashville country album.”
I’m beginning to like Jack White more and more. But still not nearly as much as Dale Watson:
2
Bob Dylan to Release An Album of Unfinished Hank Williams Sr. Songs
The Story:
On November 16, 2007, it came out that Bob Dylan had acquired some unfinished songs that had been in Hiram Hank Williams briefcase when he died. Nobody knew then, and nobody knows now exactly how Bob Dylan acquired these song sheets. At some point apparently Bob sought the help of none other than Jack White (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs) to help him finish at least one of these songs.
(Jack White)
Other artists rumored to be involved in the project include Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Alan Jackson, and Lucinda Williams.
Possibly the only reason we know anything about this project is because of a guy named Dominic Suchyta, a bass player for Jack White, who blabbed about a recording session he had participated in involving these unfinished Hank Sr. songs.
Dominic Suchyta from November 16, 2007:
“This project started when Bob Dylan acquired the ‘lost’ Hank Williams songs. Essentially, the lyric sheets Hank died with in his briefcase. Jack is my oldest friend, we talk on occasion and he asked me to come down and record. Dylan had contacted him to see if he’d like to finish some of these tunes.”
“No doubt Dylan recorded a tune for it with the Modern Times sessions. I’ve also heard through the grapevine that Willie Nelson and Norah Jones are involved, but like I said this is a shot in the dark. It’s been an interesting project in that sense. I’m a huge fan of Hank Williams and was moved to hear what Jack had to contribute.”
“We did the session in one long day, live in a circle with some mics around—much like Hank would have.”
Suchyta also said that the recording session was at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, and that Bob Dylan wasn’t involved, but that Donny Herron who plays with Bob Dylan was.
“They recorded an unfinished Williams song called “You Know That I Know.” No one has heard it as it was a Hank Williams lyric sheet that Jack put to music and edited a bit. Jack was sent most of or all of the unfinished tunes and picked this one to finish. We listened to quite a bit of Hank while I was down there and sat around the two of us playing our favorite Hank tunes, but the song was done when I got there. I think Jack just ingested a bunch of Hank Williams and this is what came out of him.”
The next time information surfaced about these unfinished songs and the recording of them was on November 26th in an MTV News interview with Jack White himself:
“Bob’s putting together an album. He came upon, somehow, 20-25 unfinished songs by Hank Williams: just the lyrics, no music, and he started to ask people if they would finish these songs. He did one, asked Willie Nelson to do one, asked me to do one, and I think Lucinda Williams and Alan Jackson are on it too. I think it might come out this year (2008). It’s a cool record.”
All the information that is known and verifiable about this project has come from these quote attributed to Jack White and his bass player. No information has come from or is available from Bob Dylan, or any of the other artists involved, nor any music label. The project at this point has not been officially announced. This appears to be a very secret project, and nobody is talking about it.
Something else I think it is important to point out is that if we are to believe Jack White’s quote, the record is finished.
Also just to clarify, none of the unfinished songs had ANY music to them, only lyrics. Some of the lyrics were complete, some were not.
Other Information:
Some reports are calling the name of the album or project the Briefcase Songs, but this can’t be verified.
I’ve seen some unverifiable information that back in 2004 Sony/BMG and the administrators of the Hank Williams estate approved the idea of Bob Dylan taking a run at putting music to the lyrics and the songs were sent off to Dylan, and that at the time Dylan either did not have the time to deal with the project, or that he tried to finish and record the songs but was not happy with the results. But again, I cannot verify this.
Also it is rumored that there were as many as 35 songs that were actually taken from the briefacse, but only 20 to 25 were given to Dylan.
Please note too that these songs are NOT the ‘Unreleased’ songs that I talked about in my last blog, nor the ‘Lost Notebook’ Hank Williams songs which are a whole nother matter altogether.
My Thoughts:
My first reaction when I heard about this was probably very similar to many of yours: If anybody should be messing with these songs, it should be Hank Williams III. And I have to say, even back in the day when I was just a passive Hank III fan, when I’d only heard Risin’ Outlaw, I would’ve still felt this way, simply because NOBODY even comes close to matching Hank Sr.’s songwriting style and voice than Hank III. Maybe Wayne Hancock, but certainly not Norah Jones or even Willie Nelson.
Furthermore, I just feel icky thinking about ANYBODY trying to create or re-create the germ of the idea behind these songs, that only Hank Williams heart ever truly knew. This is bullshit. And it makes me sick, confused, mad, and curious.
But having said all of that, I feel like I need to say a few things about the situation and the artists in involved. Some of you might get pissed at what I say here, but you have to understand that music is a business, an ugly business, and something like this is not uncommon, in fact it is very common.
What We Don’t Know
It’s important to understand that there is a LOT we don’t know about this story. A lot of people are saying that Bob Dylan got these songs through some shady outlet, but if we are to believe the unverifiable story about Sony and the Hank Williams estate (aka Hank Jr. & Co.) giving these songs to Dylan, then Dyan did nothing wrong in that regard, and if anybody did, it was the Hank estate. Can you fault Dylan if someone threw a bunch of Hank Williams songs in his lap and said run with them?
We also don’t know that Hank III is not part of this project. If there were 20-25 songs, and Dylan only recorded one, and Jack White only recorded one, and the others only recorded one, how are we to say that Hank III didn’t record one or some of the others? What we can say, is there were more artists involved than what have been named so far.
The Music Biz
Most songs, esp. country songs, meaning the lyrics and the music itself, not the recordings, but usually the recordings as well, are not owned by the artists, but publishing companies that deal with them like any other product, sometimes buying and selling them without any or little input from the artist themselves.
For example, for a long time the Beatles did not own the rights to their songs, none other than Michael Jackson did. Michael Fucking Jackson. Do you remember years back when Michael Jackson briefly married Lisa Marie Presley? The whole thing was a sham. The intention behind it was to marry together two of the largest privately-owned music rights libraries in the world.
Neil Young has one of Hank Williams’ guitars. Hank III has one of Johny Cash’s guitars, given to him by Hank Jr. This is the crazy world of music where stuff ends up in places people outside the music industry would think it doesn’t belong.
The Artists Involved:
Let’s just say I was a world famous country musician. I would not want to touch these songs. I would feel so intimidated by the task, and I would feel dirty performing it.
As for Norah Jones and Alan Jackson, whatever. Think about what you want about them, but I think we can all agree they do not have the type of talent that would be good for trying to represent the soul behind a Hank Williams song.
I am not a big Lucinda Williams fan, but I do give her credit for being an incredible songwriter, and someone who appreciates the artistry behind the craft. She might the most qualified out of this bunch to do this, but still, should she be? How does she know what direction Hank Williams meant for the music behind the lyrics to go?
Willie Nelson on the surface might seem like someone you wouldn’t mind in this project, but Willie Nelson’s biggest influence is not Hank Williams like it was for Waylon and Johny Cash and others. Willie’s biggest influence was Bob Wills. He laughs off a lot of Hank Williams fanfare as hype.
The fact that Jack White is involved with a Bob Dylan project smacks of the old artist trying to get legitimacy by teaming up with the old guy trying to hold on to relevancy. AKA, Hank Jr. teaming with Kid Rock, or Neil Young with Pearl Jam, etc etc. I never could get into The White Stripes, even though people I respected musically told me I should. It was just too poppy for me. But I will say, with the Raconteurs, Jack proved that he is not just some pop rock blow hard. Again, I don’t think he should be one representing what a Hank Williams song should sound like, BUT don’t dismiss him as a nothing musician. He’s got a little bit in the bag, and is a shredder guitar player in a classic blusey style. YouTube the Raconteurs if you want.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is the most influential songwriter of the last 60 years, and possibly of the last 100 years, in all of music. The only man who could even possibly rival him would be Hank Williams. I’m not talking BEST songwriter, but most influential. And he’s not just a folk or rock guy. He’s recorded multiple straight country albums, and they are good. Nashville Skyline is one of my favorite albums of all time. If you told me that someone was going to have to record these Hank Williams songs, Bob Dylan wouldn’t have been my first pick, but he definitely would’ve been on the short list. DON’T DISCOUNT BOB DYLAN. Sure his voice is shot, but he’s got more skins on the wall than any living musician on the planet.
In my opinion, we do not have enough information about this situation to make a clear judgment. There’s also a chance here that if there is a villian, it is the Hank Williams estate, who has allowed this whole thing to happen. I’m not going to get on Bob Dylan until I know the whole story.
You also have to understand Hank III’s place in the world. We all love him and he’s a part of our lives. But average Joe has never even heard the name. Bob Dylan might not even know he exists, or if he does, never heard his music, or has heard that he’s ‘washed up’ or ‘turned metal.’ Hank III’s legacy has been buried by Curb Records and the Nashville Oligarchy. That’s the whole reason I’m doing this Free Hank III thing. But again, maybe III is even on the album. We just don’t know.
Believe it or not, I’ve actually got more to say and I wanted to include some YouTubes in this, but I’ll stop. You’re opinions pro and con are welcome.
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