January 31, 2006
Hank ... and thanks
Posted by Sean Moores at January 31, 2006 9:35 PMI guess my "Ultimate Hank Williams" compilation isn't so ultimate after all.
In my Thursday review of the BR549 show Tuesday night at the Birchmere, I wrote that the band opened with a rockabilly tune called "That's All She Wrote." Upon further review, the song is actually titled "Dear John," and was recorded by Hank Williams. I was partially right; the song also was recorded by '50s rockabilly artist Warren Smith, and I'm guessing the version BR549 played was closer to Smith's version than Williams' (30-second clips on Amazon seem to back that up). Then again, it might have been inspired by another version altogether. If I owned Williams' "40 Greatest Hits," long the industry standard in Williams comps, I wouldn't have made this mistake, because "Dear John" is on that two-disc set. To avoid this kind of mistake in the future, I will risk incurring my wife's wrath and purchase it. I do this for you, dear reader. I risk life and limb to bring you accurate, descriptive and (I hope) entertaining coverage when you can't be there your own selves. You're worth it, so I'm going to head over to Tower Records and take one for the team.
They didn't know that they helped, but I want to say thanks to the good and knowledgeable folks over at the BR549 message board for running a forum that I could peek in on and discover the error of my ways. Voyeurism has its privileges.
There was another flaw in my setlist, which I acknowledged when I posted. Bassist Mark Miller sang a song that I didn't recognize. I couldn't find lyrics for it online, and couldn't come up what I thought was a reasonable guess, so I told you I'd look into it. I sent an e-mail to the hard-working people at Dualtone Records, and received a prompt and friendly response from Misty Hurt at Splash! Public Relations. She steered me toward Miller's solo CD, "Dodson Chapel," which contains the tune in question, "Tryin' to Say." If you're reading, Misty, and I hope you are, thanks a bunch.
The corrections have been made to the review and setlist for posterity. It just goes to show that if you try you can learn something every day. It's a great, big musical world out there. Keep your ears open.
Bravo, Sean! Bravo for your intrepid derring-do in CD buying, for not letting peril stand in the way of Your Art. :)
Posted by: stacy at January 31, 2006 9:53 PMI hate to say it - but I'm more than a little shocked that anyone interested in American music would overlook anything Hank, especially his 40 Greatest Hits. Of course, I'm biased considering I just wrote a recent blog entry myself on how Hank Williams saved my life. But, honestly, Hank is so American that he makes Francis Scott Key seem like a shabby foreigner. Though, again, I'm biased.
Posted by: Chris at January 31, 2006 9:59 PMWell, there's more than a fair amount of overlap between "40 Greatest Hits" and "The Ultimate Collection." Not quite enough, in this case, but a fair amount.
Posted by: Sean at February 1, 2006 7:05 AMYeah, I only own the "The Ultimate Collection." What's a guy to do when there's twenty competing GH compilations out there, all about 80-90% the same? Well, I went for the one with "Ultimate" in the title. ;-) I mean... how can you beat that one?
I too want to give a shout-out to the folks at Dualtone and their partners -- they've been really helpful to us! (I'm talking about you -- Lanie Miller!)
Posted by: larry at February 1, 2006 9:30 AM
