Health & Happiness Shows
In 1949, 26-year old Hank Williams struck a deal with the makers of Hadacol to sponsor his first syndicated radio series. Without it and these two-CD transcriptions of music and between-song prattle, we might never have heard what he was like in his molassified, hayseed ("if the good Lord's willin' and the creek don't rise") glory. Williams was a master of simplicity, both in his writing and in his relaxed performance, where his otherworldly voice often snapped and splintered like a dry branch. But aside from letting Miss Audrey, the Nashville Yoko Ono, get up on stage, he was also his own best producer, allowing members of his Drifting Cowboys band to stretch out in small solos and put their stamp on an entire era. "Play it like you mean it, boys," he always said. Then, as now, authenticity sells.--Alanna Nash