In 1951, when Hank Williams was at the height of his fame, he recorded some radio shows for the millers of Mother s Best Flour. When those shows were finally rediscovered many years later, they showed a side of Hank Williams that the rest of the world had never seen. Sacred Songs II: The Unreleased Recordings includes 15 songs from those long-lost radio programs. For these shows Hank sang some of his own songs, but he mostly sang other people s songs, together with the hymns he had learned growing up. The shows were a fascinating glimpse into the heart and soul of America s greatest country singer and songwriter ever.
"My earliest memory," Hank said in one of his few interviews, "is sittin on the organ stool by Momma and hollerin . I must have been five, six years old, and louder n anybody else." These are the hymns that Hank Williams learned at his mother s side in the rural clapboard churches of south central Alabama. It was to those simpler times that Hank returned when the world pushed and pulled him in every direction. He seemed to find rare peace in the simple poetry and timeless melodies of those old hymns.
And to those longstanding favorites, many still heard in churches throughout the South, we ve included a complete radio show from 1951 it even includes his hit song "Lovesick Blues." This is Hank Williams as you ve never heard him before!