I’ve heard Gary Nicholson sing live with the ‘Drivers on WSM a few times and his voice just isn’t as powerful as Chris Stapleton’s (but then again few male vocalists are). I do like to poke fun at bluegrass bands because it annoys Jon W. no end since he’s a personal friend or acquaintance of most of them!

What is weenie about this? :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4c3I-ifC5g&

Now, getting back to the topic of Hank Thompson. I was very lucky to tour with him back in the fall of ’97 and spring on ’98 supporting the “Hank and Friends” CD that had just been released. It was an all star cast with Tom Bresh, David Ball, Jimmy Belkin, and his long time steel man Bobby Garrett. All of them at one point or another were his normal touring band from years ago. Couple that with Jay Weaver and Jimmy Clark, Tom Lewis and others, made up a 13 piece power house band. It was just like his band back in ’56 with both pedal steel and straight steel. I never had so much fun and learned a ton!

Hank was a wonderful guy and freely shared his homemade wine with us as well as all his 5+ decades of stories while we toured. There is a pic of his band from ’56 and us from ’97 in the liner notes of the “Hank and Friends” CD that I have framed in my studio. I simply cherish it and now wish I had asked him to sign my copy of “Live At The Golden Nugget”.

Randy

George Strait doesn’t do very many guest appearences on other artist’s albums – he made one on Hank’s 1986 album HANK THOMPSON, singing a duet with Hank on “Six Pack To Go”

I got to see Hank perform about three years before his death when he ventured to Eustis , Florida for a performance. At the time he was not travelling with a band, but used the superlative house band at the Florida Sunshine Opry. Hank played his own lead guitar, on the entirely reasonable assumption that a bunch of musicians in their 40s might not know his hits from the 1950s (in this case he was wrong – the band knew his 50s hits since local performers keep them in the repertoire, but not his 60s and 70s hits). The show was terrific, Hank was in very good voice, and he ran through a fairly long set (about 80 minutes – not bad for a fellow seven months short of his 80th birthday)

But on record, he just sounded too damn happy and too proud of some corny pun that would be the basis for whatever song he was singing.

I guess for a time in the ’60s, when true honky-tonk went out of fashion, radio decided to play Hank Thompson’s faux honky-tonk, where he just sounds absolutely delighted all the time.

A lot of Thompson’s recordings come up really lame when compared to other versions. Just listen to his positively giddy “Wreck of the Old 97″
and compare it to the dramatic versions by Hank Snow or Eddy Arnold or Woody Guthrie or Johnny Cash.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecD_xNvlpgo
Or compare his loopy recordings of “What’s Made Milwaukee Famous” and “Lord Knows I’m Drinking” to the butt-kicking classics by Jerry Lee and Cal Smith.

Here’s the crucial details:
http://www.theboot.com/2010/09/03/lady-antebellum-dave-haywood-cma-date/

Good luck!

Opry Alert! Tonight’s Opry is a bit of a “Flashback Show” and will feature Billy Dean and Exile (who recently got back together)! Also performing are the Grascals and Darryl Worley, who will spend his entire allotted time explaining what he really meant in the song “Keep The Change”! (lol)

Saturday night’s Opry will feature two of my current faves Ashton Shepherd and Holly Williams, and also The Steeldrivers (who without Chris Stapleton are more like The WeenieDrivers) and Shawn Camp. Both shows rank a solid B+! Go Opry!
Schedule: http://www.opry.com/shows/ThisWeek.html
Listen: http://www.wsmonline.com/

Since its Hank Thompson’s birthday today, I sure hope on of the “Opry Legends” sings a Hank song in tribute on the Opry this weekend! My choice would be “Squaws Along The Yukon” as its sooooo politically incorrect by today’s idiotic Obamavoter “thought crime” standards…