The Immortals - The Greatest Artists of All Time: 74) Hank Williams

Hank Williams songs like "Lonesome Whistle" and "Your Cheatin' Heart" are wonderful to sing because there is no bullshit in them. The words, the melodies and the sentiment are all there, precise, clear and true. It takes economy and simplicity to get to an idea or emotion in a song, and there's no better example of that than Hank Williams.

Hank had a voice that cut through wood. From his records, it sounded like he was projecting from a completely different place in his body. It was a voice that could play roadhouses without amplification; that could cut through barroom crowds, people drinking and talking. The places he played were so tough that he hired a wrestler, Cannonball Nichols, to be his bass player. Hank lived what would have been a rock star's life -- full of touring, drinking and woman troubles.

I bought a ten-song Hank Williams collection on vinyl for $4.99. It was like I unlocked a box: His music spoke to me. His records are enormously important to country music, but I think I responded to them because they sounded so exotic, like nothing else I had ever heard. It's significant that Hank learned to play guitar from an elderly black musician: Hank is the ultimate hillbilly, but there's other stuff going on. For a while he was my only reference point; I've covered his songs for years, and recently I made a conscious effort to try to make the songs on Sea Change as direct as Hank's.

I see more and more people getting into his music today. When I played his songs early on, I used to get really sick of everyone in the crowd yelling "yee-haw" all the way through. But I've noticed that over the last ten years or so, there's been a rediscovery of the haunting quality of Hank Williams' music. When I pull those songs out now, I get taken the right way. People are listening.

[From Issue 946 — April 15, 2004]

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