The music of country music icon and legend Hank Williams will be pulled together early next year into a six-CD collection which includes a series of 144 performances from radio shows he hosted almost 70 years ago. ‘Hank Williams: Pictures From Life’s Other Side — The Man and His Music in Rare Photos and Recordings’ will feature the complete rundown of his performances in the 15-minute broadcasts of the Mother’s Best Flour radio show he began hosting at WSM studios in 1951. The collection will be released February 7th, and is produced by Cheryl Pawelski, with each track being restored and remastered by Michael Graves. In 2015, Pawelski and Graves earned a Best Historical Album Grammy for their work on their previous Hank Williams compilation ‘The Garden Spot Programs, 1950.’ The release will be accompanied by a 272-page book featuring rare images of the singer.
As RS Country notes: “Sponsored by Mother’s Best Flour Company and aired each weekday, the 15-minute broadcasts, many of which were actually pre-recorded due to Williams’ grueling tour schedule, were mostly forgotten after those initial airings. Decades later, as the discs were being hauled to a dumpster, they were salvaged at the last minute, rescuing a veritable treasure trove of country-music history from oblivion and more than doubling the number of known recordings from one of the most important figures in 20th century American music.” The recordings will include the only known recorded version of ‘Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain’ which went on to become a huge hit for Willie Nelson.
