A project produced by Bob Dylan has breathed life into unfinished Hank Williams songs

Hank Williams, his unfinished songs brought to life

From the Alan Jackson’s honky-tonk You’ve Been Lonesome Too to Merle Haggard’s reverential The Sermon on the Mount, The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams is a treasure.

These are Hank Williams Sr. songs we never heard before and it’s at treat.

There is more life, fun and good music here than in most country CDs in the past while.

Maybe these are not the Top 10 Hank Williams songs we already know by heart but they are Hank Williams and they’re fresh.  

Hank Williams only recorded 35 songs in his brief five-year recording career before he died at age 29 from the ravages of alcoholism.

I assumed he had recorded hundreds of songs. There are so many enduring Hank Williams hits like Your Cheatin’ Heart, Hey Good Lookin’, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, and Jambalaya (On the Bayou).

Hank Williams was the most important songwriter in the post-World War II country music.  He was known for handkerchief wringing ballads of back luck and bad love.  It was also a time when the high lonesome sound of country music went honky tonkin’ in city bars with electric guitars.

You’ve Been Lonesome Too – Alan Jackson

But his life was cut short when he died in 1952 in the back of a car between gigs. He was only 29.

When he died there were 4 leather bound notebooks that contained his works, the unfinished songs he didn’t record.  Like many songwriters, Williams wrote songs prolifically and kept them in these notebooks. From time to time, some of the songs would get music. That could happen on the road or in the studio. The tunes could be originals or something Williams stole from other music he was listening to.

Through good management and some luck the notebooks were safeguarded by his publisher until they landed in the possession of Sony Music.

Toronto born music producer Mary Martin got the idea to finish some of the songs after working on the Timeless: Hank Williams Tribute.

The first plan was to give the notebooks to Bob Dylan. The idea was an extension of Billy Bragg’s work with Woody Guthrie’s notebooks. That project produced old/new songs for Mermaid Avenue.

Bob Dylan is one of the centuries most prolific songwriters who had already expressed his reverence for Hank Williams. Most people ignore Dylan’s interest in Americana music – folk, country, blues and rock and roll. He is a student of music from his Theme Time Radio Hour broadcasts to the two CD set of American music he produced in the 1990s- Good As I Been to You and World Gone Wrong.

After discussions with Dylan, he agreed to work on the project but wanted to enlist other singer songwriters to give the material a broader interpretation.

While we may not agree with all of Dylan’s choices, some proved to be inspired. Each performer had to finish the song, create the melody, bridges, and arrangements.

After a week listening to the CD, many of the songs have become ear worms. I can’t help playing those 12 songs over and over.

The songs

Alan Jackson singing You’ve Been Lonesome Too probably sounds the closest to Hank Williams. Jackson is a keeper of the country flame and the arrangement of Stuart Duncan on fiddle and Paul Franklin’s steel guitar is classic. It’s a classic arrangement with the fiddle trading space with Jackson’s vocal. On the break the fiddle leads and the steel guitar follows for a classic steel guitar ending.

Patty Loveless is in a high stepping mood with You’re Through Foolin Me. Loveless is a great country singer and shows she can write as well. The song is infectious, one of hardest to forget, helped by Emory Gordy Jr. slap bass and Deannie Richardson’s fiddling.

You won’t miss steel guitars and fiddles for a long time because the album is full of them. It’s almost a revival of 50s country swing.

Norah Jones gently swings How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart, a song she has added to her repertoire. She does gorgeous high lonesome harmony on the word “heart”.

How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart by Norah Jones on guitar in concert

Dylan’s son Jakob Dylan turns out a great song – Oh, Mama, Come Home done with a modern arrangement.

Oh, Mama, Come Home by Jakob Dylan

The words are maudlin but that was the way men thought back in those days. She took my dog and my truck. The simplicity of the sentiment makes you smile.

This CD got some negative reviews from people for not using Hank Jr., his grandson, more original tunes etc. To each his own taste.

If you want genes, Holly Williams Hank’s granddaughter co-wrote and sings on song Blue is My Heart.

To me it sounds fresh and new like a country revival. I love it.

Track List

Alan Jackson “You’ve Been Lonesome, Too”
Bob Dylan “The Love That Faded”
Norah Jones “How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart?”
Jack White “You Know That I Know”
Lucinda Williams “I’m So Happy I Found You”
Vince Gill & Rodney Crowell “I Hope You Shed a Million Tears”
Patty Loveless “You’re Through Fooling Me”
Levon Helm “You’ll Never Again Be Mine”
Holly Williams “Blue Is My Heart”
Jakob Dylan “Oh, Mama, Come Home”
Sheryl Crow “Angel Mine”
Merle Haggard “The Sermon on the Mount”

Where to buy USA

Where to buy Canada