lunes, 31 de marzo de 2014

Hank Williams: Find unreleased songs


Hank Williams: Find unreleased songs

 
"The Garden Spot Programs, 1950," out May 20, feature Hank Williams radio recordings unheard for 64 years.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2014/03/28/hank-williams-unreleased-garden-spot-mind-your-own-business/7001777/

More than 60 years after Hank Williams' death, people are still discovering recordings of his performances.

On May 20, Omnivore Records will release The Garden Spot Programs, 1950, a set of previously unheard radio transcriptions. One of those recordings, Mind Your Own Business, premieres at USA TODAY.

"We're not only finding things, but finding things we never even knew about," says Williams biographer Colin Escott, who co-produced the release.

The recordings come from four shows Williams recorded in Nashville in February 1950 for Naughton Farms, a mail-order nursery in Waxahachie, Texas. "From the way it looks, Naughton Farms had him, George Morgan and a couple other artists do these shows," Escott says. "They would send them out on these 16-inch transcription discs to little radio stations around the country that would intercut the show with commercials for Naughton Farms. It was like the Stone Age forebear of e-commerce. I guess they went to maybe even hundreds of small stations. Somehow, serendipitously, the copies that went to KSIB in Creston, Iowa, survived."

Escott says a Texas record collector named George Gimarc discovered the discs and brought them to his attention.

"The sound quality's astonishingly good, certainly on a par with his studio recordings, because they were done in the same studio," Escott says.

This track begins with Grand Old Opry announcer Grant Turner introducing Williams, who then sings Mind Your Own Business, which had been a Top Five country hit for him in the summer of 1949.

In addition to Mind Your Own Business, The Garden Spot Programs features versions of early Williams hits Lovesick Blues and Wedding Bells, as well as a pair of songs Escott says Williams rarely, if ever, performed elsewhere — Farther Along, a gospel song, and Jesus Remembered Me, which he had recorded previously with his first wife, Audrey Williams. "This is Hank solo," Escott says, "so it's almost like you're hearing it for the first time, because you're not listening to Audrey — or you're not distracted by Audrey."

Escott finds The Garden Spot recordings especially interesting because Williams clearly isn't playing with his regular band. "It sounds like Cousin Jody playing steel guitar," he says, "playing a lot of steel guitar. Hank loved Don Helms, because Don didn't play a lot of steel guitar. He kept it simple. So when you're hearing Lovesick Blues with the very busy fills, it's like hearing it anew."

The Garden Spot Programs, 1950 will be issued as a digital download, as well as on CD and limited-edition red vinyl. It will follow a 10" vinyl sampler EP which Omnivore will release for Record Store Day, April 19.

https://soundcloud.com/omnivore-recordings/08-mind-your-own-business

Track Listing:

The Garden Spot Jingle
Lovesick Blues
A Mansion On The Hill
Fiddle Tune
I've Just Told Mama Goodbye
Closing/Oh! Susanna
The Garden Spot Jingle
Mind Your Own Business
Lovesick Blues
Fiddle Tune
At The First Fall Of Snow
Closing/Oh! Susanna
The Garden Spot Jingle
I Can't Get You Off Of My Mind
I Don't Care (If Tomorrow Never Comes)
Fiddle Tune
Farther Along
Closing/Oh! Susanna
The Garden Spot Jingle
I'll Be A Bachelor 'Til I Die
Wedding Bells
Fiddle Tune
Jesus Remembered Me
Closing/Oh! Susanna
Tracks 1 - 6 taken from Naughton Farms Garden Spot Show #4
Tracks 7 - 12 taken from Naughton Farms Garden Spot Show #9
Tracks 13 - 18 taken from Naughton Farms Garden Spot Show #10
Tracks 19 - 24 taken from Naughton Farms Garden Spot Show #11