Pages tagged “hank williams”

It was back in November when we first reported news of a Bob Dylan orchestrated Hank Williams album. The record is said to consist of unheard Hank Williams lyrics that are being put to music by a slue of different artists. The only confirmed parties involved at the time were Jack White and the head honcho himself, Robert Zimmerman.

To our delight, the former has finally spoken out about his work on the project. In recent interviews, White has pegged Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams and Alan Jackson as participants in the album. Still, the White Stripes leading man has also stated that there are 20-25 potential Williams lyrics that Dylan has found to be put to music, meaning that there are more names to be revealed in the months to come.

The unique album has no set release date, but White told interviewers, “I think it might come out this year. It’s a cool record.”

Jack White also managed to elude to yet another side project he is working on while speaking with MTV News. Although he mainly just acknowledged its existence and skipped over any tangible details, it will be interesting to see what this musical force has up his sleeve next. In the meantime, fans can catch White's cameo appearance in the Martin Scorsese-directed Rolling Stones film, Shine A Light, currently slated to hit theaters on April 4.

Related links:
HankWilliams.com
BobDylan.com
Paste: The White Stripes Plays Us a Little Number

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

Bob Dylan is heading up a project to have several artists write music and record some of Hank Williams' final lyrics, according to Steppin’ In It bassist Dominic Suchyta, who played on one of the tracks.

“This project started when Bob Dylan acquired the ‘lost’ Hank Williams songs,” Suchyta tells Paste. “Essentially, the lyric sheets Hank died with in his briefcase. Jack is my oldest friend, we talk on occasion and he asked me to come down and record. Dylan had contacted him to see if he'd like to finish some of these tunes.”

White recorded the song at Blackbird Studios in Nashville with engineer Joe Chiccarelli, Suchyta on upright bass, Carla Azar (Autolux) on drums, Donny Herron (Bob Dylan, BR549) on 8-string guitar and Dean Fertita (Raconteurs, Waxwings) on acoustic guitar. “We did the session in one long day,” Suchyta says of the secret taping, “live in a circle with some mics around—much like Hank would have.”

They recorded an unfinished Williams song called “You Know That I Know.” “No one has heard it as it was a Hank Williams lyric sheet that Jack put to music and edited a bit,” says Suchyta. “Jack was sent most of or all of the unfinished tunes and picked this one to finish. We listened to quite a bit of Hank while I was down there and sat around the two of us playing our favorite Hank tunes, but the song was done when I got there. I think Jack just ingested a bunch of Hank Williams and this is what came out of him.”

Suchyta says that Dylan didn’t record with White that day, “but I wouldn't put it past either of them. They seem to be cut from the same cloth, sort of misplaced Midwestern brothers. I do know Jack has joined him on stage quite a bit and joined him for his XM radio show. When we were high school teenagers, we recorded quite a few Dylan tunes on our old 4-track reel machine. I remember having a nice version of ‘Masters Of War’ on some cassette somewhere. Jack played drums and guitar, I played bass and guitar.”

The entire participant list is still under wraps. “No doubt Dylan recorded a tune for it with the Modern Times sessions,” Suchya posits. “I've also heard through the grapevine that Willie Nelson and Norah Jones are involved, but like I said this is a shot in the dark. It's been an interesting project in that sense. I’m a huge fan of Hank Williams and was moved to hear what Jack had to contribute.”

Related links:
HankWilliams.com
BobDylan.com
Paste: The White Stripes Play Us a Little Number
SteppinInIt.com

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

Ask Sean Lennon, Jakob Dylan, or Jason Bonham: it's never easy to be the offspring of a musical legend. Each of those gentlemen had to struggle to escape his respective father's shadow, but it could have been worse. They could have had to carry the legacy of an entire genre on their backs. Such has been the fate of the children and grandchildren of Hank Williams.

Williams - who died on New Year's Day 1953 at the age of 29 - was an icon of such singular magnitude in the realm of country music that he transcends any sort of equivalent in other musical styles. Elvis might come close, but his following is more of a cult now than it is the towering, ornate Church of Hank that lives on in country music to this day.

The Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville has explored the life and music of Hank Williams before, but this time it's getting the whole Williams clan involved. On March 28 of next year, the museum will debut an exhibit entitled Family Tradition: The Hank Williams Legacy. The display, slated for an almost two-year run, features all the trappings of an archival exhibit, including artifacts, instruments, song manuscripts, photos and more. But as its title suggests, the exhibition will explore the Williams bloodline in detail, with testimonials from Hank Williams Jr., Jett Williams, Hank Williams III, Hilary Williams (all singers themselves) and other members of Hank's brood.

Museum Director Kyle Young had this to say via a press release: “As his heirs speak frankly about their ancestor’s legacy and his impact on their lives, the Family Tradition story will take our visitors on a voyage to the spiritual and emotional core of the Williams family."

The exhibit will also play host to panel discussions, musical performances and films throughout its run at the Hall of Fame. It's an all-encompassing celebration of one of America's most influential songwriters and the legacy he left behind.

Related Links:
HankWilliams.com
HankJr.com
Hank Williams - "Cold Cold Heart" (YouTube)

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

If only because it was the first recording studio in what would become Music City, USA, Castle Studios influenced music history as fundamentally as any other studio in the world. The brain child of three WSM Radio engineers who recorded the Grand Ole Opry broadcasts and the era’s first syndicated radio specials, and who watched in dismay as all the country artists scurried off to New York or Chicago to record, Castle Studios was a child borne of necessity. Or opportunity. First begun in WSM studios after broadcast hours, the original studio didn’t have space for the large lathe used to cut the vinyl. Instead, they sent the signal, via a dedicated phone line, to a room 12 miles away. They’d have to make a phone call to see if it was a good take. After moving to a separate room in the nearby Tulane Hotel, the early Castle Studios gave birth to nearly half the hits on country radio—and several on the pop charts—between 1947 and 1955.

In addition to playing a pivotal role in Nashville becoming a music center, Castle was the exclusive home to one of the 20th century’s seminal artists. He was a young, unknown singer/songwriter from Montgomery, Ala., when he recorded his first demos there on Dec. 11, 1946. In early 1947 he recorded a little tune called “Honky Tonkin’,” which won him a record deal with MGM Records. It was Hank Williams, of course. A little bit superstitious, Williams danced with the one that brung him and, though his success up to then afforded him his choice of studios, on December 22, 1948, he went into the no-frills, converted dining room that was Castle Studios, and recorded an old Tin Pan Alley tune called “Lovesick Blues.” It became a 16-week number one, crossing over to the pop Top 25, and winning him an invitation to the Grand Ole Opry—and superstardom—cementing both Williams’ and Castle’s place in recording history.

To read about other classic sessions and the studios that shaped them, take a look at our feature, Just For the Record.