Hank's Lonesome Ramblings.

[Hank The Drifter]

Hello MusicBanter this is Hank's Lonesome Ramblings. I have been debating for a few days what I should do in my journal and I've finally decided to just keep it traditional and review albums of different artists and such. I would also like to throw the occasional biography on certain musicians/bands, and share my opinions on music news I find important. So basically, I'll just be writing about anything music related I feel interested in writing about. The musicians/bands I write about will be totally random and ones I feel extremely important to me and acts I think need more attention.

I hope to accomplish a few things with this journal. I want to better introduce myself to the MusicBanter community by sharing my music ramblings, hopefully get at least one person into a new band, and last I would like to improve my poor writing skills.

As I'm sure you can tell I'm not an extremely skilled writer and can't keep up with some of the other journals, which is one of the reasons I'm writing this journal to improve my writing skills.

Thanks for reading, I'll be making my first post now.

-
Friday, June 4, 2010.
11:21A.M.

I would like my first post in this journal to be dedicated to my personal favorite musician of all time, Hank Williams.

Alone With His Guitar

Hank Williams
2000

1. Tennessee Border
2. First Year Blues
3. Blue Love (In My Heart)
4. Please Don't Let Me Love You
5. Alone and Forsaken Listen
6. You Caused It All by Telling Lies
7. With Tears in My Eyes
8. Rockin' Chair Money
9. Cool Water
10. We Live in Two Different Worlds
11. My Bucket's Got a Hole in It
12. Teardrop on a Rose
13. Honky Tonk Blues
14. Thy Burdens Are Greater Than Mine
15. Weary Blues from Waitin'
16. I Can't Escape from You
17. I Could Never Be Ashamed of You
18. Kaw-Liga

If you're looking for an album that is full of the blues you have come to the right place. Hank Williams is known to have been chock full of the blues and it comes out on these recordings. If you want something to compare these recordings too think of them as Hank Williams 'Unplugged' album so to speak. That's basically what you've got here, ten radio broadcast songs and eight demo tracks that are nothing but Hank and a guitar. This CD really gives you that up close and personal with Hank feeling, something very few ever got, because its just him and his guitar.

Eleven of the eighteen tracks on this CD are covers, some of which belong to some pretty big names, Ernest Tubb, Sons Of The Pioneers, Red Foley, Roy Acuff, and so own, but Hank makes you feel like each of them are his. There are some tracks that are suppose to be 'funny' and 'lighthearted' Hank takes them and makes some of them sound just as painful and blue as any of the other tracks he sings.

"Tennessee Border" is one of the most lighthearted and fun songs on the album and its still pretty blue in parts. I really like to hear Hank sing it though. If you listen closely enough to his pronunciation you can hear he says "Aubun" rather than Auburn. Also, for those of you not aware this song was sung by Red Foley and many other big name acts. First Year Blues This is another one of the covers on this album, which was originally written by Ernest Tubb. If you're not aware Tubb sings this song so it sounds a bit comical. Hanks version like I said before still has that certain blue feeling. This song is about a couples first year of marriage and the struggles that they are going through being married. Overall, I feel like Hank done a very good job with the song. Blue Love (In My Heart) This song wasn't written by Hank, but it was written by Fred Rose which wrote several songs with/for Hank. Anyway, the song is about a man wanting his wife to stop his hurting and come back to him. Hank surely knew the meaning of this song with all the trouble he had with women. Please Don't Let Me Love You this song is basically a man not wanting to fall in love with a woman because he knows he is going to end up hurt and doesn't want to go through that again. This song wasn't written by Hank, but as far as I know he was the first to record it, but don't quote me on that. Alone And Forsaken all I can say is "WOW." this song gives me chills every time I listen to it. This song just conveys so much pain YOU can feel it when you listen to it. If you listen to this song and it doesn't hit you hard you need to be checked out by a doctor! You Caused it All by Telling Lies This song is about a wife/girlfriend lying to a husband/boyfriend causing the husband/boyfriend to break up with her. The song is the opposite of most Hank songs its more about the male leaving the female. With Tears In My Eyes This song is nearly the opposite of the one before it, this one is about the husband lying to the wife and begging her to stay, but she wont have it she is leaving. More along the lines of a traditional Hank tune! Rockin Chair Money is one of the more up tempo less serious songs on this CD. I've always thought it meant he was ready to settle down, but there has never been an extremely clear meaning, in my opinion. Several different ideas fit the song pretty well. Cool Water is a song written by Bob Nolan and covered by several big named artist. The song is about a mule and his owner seeing a mirage in the desert and is another 'fun' song sung by Hank Williams. We Live In Two Different Worlds this song was written by Fred Rose and has been done by a few big name Country musicians. This song is about a couple living in different worlds, the female can't keep the promises she makes and the male is hurting from never getting shown any love. Pretty common in a Hank song I suppose. My Buckets Got a Hole In It this song gives people who didn't know Hank a chance to see just what his sense of humor was like. Just seems like the kind of song he would pick and smile while playing. A really fun song to listen to. Not a lot to be said about it, but interesting nonetheless. Honky Tonk Blues This is one of Hanks biggest hits and one of my favorite. This song is about a farm boy leaving the farm for the city. The boy gets tired of the city life and moves back to the farm. Thy Burdens Are Greater Then Mine this ONE song has more feeling and is basically showing gratefulness for things we normally take for granted. At least that's what the song has always meant in my eyes. I Cant Escape From You rumor is this is one of the last songs Hank ever recorded, which is sad being its supposedly dedicated to Audrey his first wife. The song talks about how it does no good to drink, because once the bottle runs dry he still thinks about her and cries and how he will always love her no matter how much he tries not too. This song is haunting because he told Audrey when she refused to come back that he would be dead within a year, and sure enough within a year of him saying it he passed away. Kaw Liga this is one of the coolest tracks on the CD in my opinion. On this track there are some false starts where the band starts over after messing up and you can hear them chatting in the background about it for a few seconds. This just gives the album those special touches that make it stand out in my opinion.



Now, some people seem to think this album is a waste of release because all the songs were released on the completed discography disk and other releases. I like the release though, and I reviewed it because I didn't want to review the entire discography. I will probably review a 20 Greatest hits or something by Hank Williams soon though.

Overall, I love this album and hope others will check [it] out [and] Hank. If you're already a fan and you've heard this/these songs, thoughts?

"If the Good Lord’s Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise"