When I look up the word "honky-tonk", naturally used in this "Journey of Drinkers" series, I find the dictionary says it as "a cheap bar, club or dancehall where country music is played" or "country music" or "ragtime (the genre with much syncopation piano music like black music) piano". Syncopation is now so typical that I often miss country music or jazz in the '40s which was not appreciative but danceable. As jazz music got played mainly by less personels than big band after World War II, country music got played by 5 or 6 pieces rather than a large numbers like western swing, and people had much fun with music from jukeboxs or radios rather than live performances in the late '40s, when Hank Williams came in. Among many country stars since Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams is specially treated as father of modern country music, because his style of telling the words, story-telling and less serious and sympathetic with folks' feelings, became the base of country music, even if the instrumental components changed. Anyway his own compositions are sung by those who are in various kinds of genres, and those which were not written by him got known wider as his songs, for the story of his short life from others' viewpoints was told with his impassioned voice.
One of his significant tune for fans of rock or the blues might be I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, which depicts the scene he sees and his own loneliness in the most lyrical form among his compositions. Not like the blues often saying about short-ranged feeling of resignation, it says about the emotion surging up in a traveler's heart when he stares afar. Although they were not written by him, Lost Highway or My Bucket's Got a Hole in It also strikes fans of rock or the blues as well. The latter's stroking of guitar is so blusy that it proves the episode young Hank learned guitar from the blues street singer "Tee Tot". Meanwhile, his songs which are appreciated by pops or jazz lovers might contain Cold Cold Heart. Its phrasing and harmony with the sound are confortable, and the deepest expression is given to its lyrics by the way how Hank trembles his voice. When you see the DVD in "The Ultimate Collection", you should find Tony Benette sings this in front of Hank. Isn't it my excessive guessing that singers think "It's no use imitating the way Hank sings even if you love this tune. So what only you can do is to do in your own way." Jambalaya (on the Bayou), where there's many nonsenses and wordplays but you can only find yourself having fun, is famous for the renditions of Carpenters or Fats Domino. Western Swing in the '40s plays dancable and pleasant tunes and influences him. This tune is unique for inspireing the atmosphere of New Orleans folk songs. I Saw the Light is a kind of gospel for travelers who are shaking off all things and wandering. It might be the most emancipating one among his compositions. These tunes are beyond his own character and the frame of country music.
Not only the ones I mentioned above, "40 Greatest Hits" and some compilations are jammed with others equal to them. Since the debut at MGM he had a hit Move It on Over, the breakthrough to stardom was the rendition of vaudeville hit score, Lovesick Blues. This is a Tin Pan Alley tune with complicated progression which is rare for his other songs, and is brightened with his idea of featuring the phrasing of Jimmie Rodgers' yodel. This yodel-like phrasing, which can be heard on Long Gone Lonesome Blues or Why Don't You Love Me or Moanin' the Blues or Honky Tonk Blues, became the trademark of Hank Williams. He also had ones, You're Gonna Change (or I'm Gonna Leave) or Hey Good Lookin' or Baby, We're Really in Love or Half as Much or Settin' the Woods on Fire, with less yodels but with shouts which lead to the later rock or soul. While you find his many sunny hits, there are earnest ones which is suited to his emotional delivery. His performance appeared on A Mansion on the Hill or Wedding Bells or Why Should We Try Anymore or I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You) or I'm Sorry for You My Friend or Window Shopping, it seems to me, exerts more influences on the future country singers than his yodeling. Lyrics of country music often say about distresses caused by a woman's rejection, and songs of his last days were specially emotinal as if he put a spell on a woman; You Win Again or I'll Never Get out of This World Alive or his posthumously released Kaw-liga or Your Cheatin' Heart or Take These Chains from My Heart delivers such a tingling feeling.
It's also interesting to see persons appeared in his life, the background of these tunes. While Fred Rose, his mentor, and the Drifting Cowboys are in the musical spotlight, we also take notice of his gossips, which were in a star's fate. His first wife, Audrey's voice can be heard on "Health and Happiness Show". She couldn't be satisfied with a role of her husband's manager and wanted to be a successful singer in her own right. Such desires she bore, it seems to me, aimed at her son Hank Williams Jr. in a twisted form. His songs on "The Best of Hank Williams Jr." are so painful that they suggest his struggling not to lose himself. It fairly took much time for him to establish himself as Rowdy with a help from Waylon Jennings in the '70s. Jr.'s son and Sr.'s posthumous daughter became musicians, and each of them cannot deny and accept Sr.'s shadow. The DVD in "The Ultimate Collection" depicts such human relations together with Sr.'s fragmentary images.
As for myself, I already knew Hank Williams' name but I got his songs on CD for the first time at a store in the Kadena Air base, where I was then astonished at the rich stocks (and now poor stocks because of the spread of the online shopping). "Live at the Grand Ole Opry" was what I bought there. Not only you can hear the frantic reaction of the audience on his first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry with his mega hit Lovesick Blues, but you can find the pleasant atmospere of his talks with Minnie Pearl, a regular comedian on this radio program, even if you cannot understand what they were talking. In addition he had held his own radio program sponsored by a tonic manufacturer. You can hear it on "Health and Happiness Show", and you can find the ability of the Drifting Cowboys including solos of Jerry Rivers' brilliant fiddle played in the latter part of the program. Later the Grand Ole Opry fired Hank Williams because of his alcohol and drug probrems, and he rushed into self-destruction until his death. But he looked like alive and kicking on these live recordings. And you cannot miss his last studio recordings, aside from the over-production like adding the high-flown orchestra by the record company; they are so wonderful and somewhat uncanny despite his poor health. When I think of the later country music that was dominated by packaged music, made not by the band arrangements but by studio musicians, it should be his virtue that he left only the cool cream of music.(2010/07/08)