Pictures From Life's Other Side: The Man and His Music In Rare Recordings and Photos (2019 - Remaster)

Hank Williams

Released on 7/02/20 by BMG Rights Management (US) LLC
Main artists: Hank Williams
Genre: Country

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Hank Williams is one of those musicians who is more successful dead than he was alive, and since he’s been dead since 1953, he has become a veritable megastar. Adored during his short career, the scandalous and photogenic singer became the top country music star, taking advantage of the rise of radio and television in the United States to further his success. Then on a cold New Year’s Eve night he was found dead at the age of 29, in the back of the Cadillac that was bringing him to his next concert. A short-lived success, but one that served as both a blueprint and warning to stars in rock music: in the years following his death, Elvis Presley took over with real success. However Hank Williams became the prototype for the cursed star that burns through their youth and dies too young. Indeed, Elvis would follow suit, and Kurt Cobain didn’t avoid the trap either. But first and foremost, it’s the music that made these figures famous, and Hank Williams was certainly no exception. He invented the white blues, songs that are both dismal and comforting, which touch on death, heartbreak and depression but that make you want to dance to the songs on repeat all the same.

Without his hooting but pitiful songs, there would be no modern country music. His recordings have been countlessly compiled and re-edited, with varying levels of success. But this box set Pictures from Life’s Other Side will be one to remember. It brings together 144 tracks (over seven hours of music!) recorded in 1951 for WSM radio. With the broadcast sponsored by Mother’s Best Flour and a disc jockey making conversation and presenting each song, you feel like you’re listening in the backwaters of Tennessee in front of a transistor radio. Accompanied by his Drifting Cowboys, Hank Williams delivers every aspect of his art: blues, religious songs, some wonderful yodelling, songs to dance to, covers… The performances are amazing, the harmonies and the arrangements are tight, and the violinist creates magic with his bow. Fewer and fewer people that had the privilege of seeing Hank Williams live are still here to tell the tale, but these recordings allow us to imagine the fervour, the emotion and the poetry which the ill-fated singer and his band created. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz

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Pictures From Life's Other Side: The Man and His Music In Rare Recordings and Photos (2019 - Remaster)

Hank Williams

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Introduction (2019 - Remaster)