I gotta say, this is the most contentious forum I’ve experienced in the limited range of country music websites and blogs. Well-informed, sure but a person’s gotta tread easy ’round these parts.

FYI on handling, from the original Mother’s Best reissue press release:

“When I heard about the Mother’s Best shows, I couldn’t believe there was more,” exclaims Hank Williams, Jr. “And when I heard that these recordings increased the amount of daddy’s music by fifty percent, man, talk about a grand slam. Hearing him sing songs like The Blind Child’s Prayer and On Top Of Old Smoky, and you realize he was listening to country music, soaking it up, back in the 1930’s. But the most special songs to me are where daddy sings with mother on those old Gospel songs like, Where The Soul Of Man Never Dies. There’s something special about those recordings.”

“This has truly been my labor of love for me. It’s a mission to share the man I now know as my father with a world who is seeing him, perhaps for the first time, as the multi-talented, multi-faceted genius he was,” says Jett Williams. “With this project, you feel like a privileged outsider eavesdropping from a corner of the studio on a slice of Americana. This is a rare and incredible snapshot in time – getting to witness Hank’s genius at work and play.”

Jett’s referring to her more active participation in the production.

And this project is a moneymaker for all concerned, btw.