Less than a week away from the release of one of the most controversial projects in country music in years, The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams, the man Sony ATV put in charge of the project is dealing with plagiarism claims for some paintings in his “Asia Series” on display right now at the Gagosian Gallery in New York.
Next Tuesday, the ‘Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams’ will be released to the public. Completely putting aside the ethics questions for the project itself, I have drafted a list of 10 simple questions about the specifics of the Lost Notebooks that I think country music consumers have a right to be answered before they decide to purchase it.
In about a week, Hank Williams III will be releasing an unprecedented 4 albums via his own label, and then heading out on tour. Ahead of this, I talked with the head hellbilly himself about the new albums, the legacy of fatherhood in the Hank Williams lineage, his role as a founding father of the country music underground, Shooter Jennings and his XXX movement, and how he feels about the unfinished songs of Hank Williams.
When Hank Williams III started his country music career, his neo-traditionalist sound and spitting image of his grandfather awakened the imagination of country music traditionalists that we were seeing the resurrection of the King of country music himself. That is why when the Lost Notebook of Hank Williams project was announced, many Hank 3 fans were wondering where his name was in the track list.
On October 4th, The Lost Notebook of Hank Williams will be released. As far back as October of 2008, I’ve had serious questions about the origins of these songs, the ethics behind the project, and the artists chosen to flesh out songs that do not include music. Now I have a new concern: why we are being given wrong information.
The Rolling Stone has just reported that a long-rumored project pairing Bob Dylan and Jack White together to oversee the recording of an album of Hank Williams songs that were found without music in a briefcase will be released on October 4th. The title is The Lost Notebook of Hank Williams . It is being released on Dylan’s Egyptian Records imprint…
I feel the need to iterate to you some observations for last night’s 2011 Grammy Awards, if only to get them off my chest. This is not entirely going to be a bitch fest. Every year they air the Grammy’s, and every year people are left scratching their heads and feeling hopelessness for music, and so it was to be expected that this year would be no different…
When music fans think about the art of songwriting, they usually want to have a romantic vision of the process–their favorite songwriters sitting down late at night in a dimly lit room, deep in the throes of passion and inspiration. Maybe a candle flickering above a blank piece of paper, with a glass of wine or whiskey to the side, and tears staining the page as they alleviate their heartache by bearing their soul in a song.
In truth, mainstream songwriting more resembles the unappealing aesthetics of industrial food production . . .
What set me off was the introduction. And when I say “set me off,” I mean it hit my ears like an unprovoked insult. With a couple of uninformed, arrogant, and belittling sentences, the awesome legacies of dozens of New York-based folk artists were reduced to a trifle in such an irresponsible manner, I could palpably feel the anger pulsing through my veins and I lost a night’s worth of sleep…
We like to rag on people around here like Jennifer Love Hewitt and 80’s pop star “Tiffany” for “Going Country.” This has prompted a few to criticize me and others for thinking anyone that didn’t start in country cannot “go country” or dabble in the music, or that I have some predisposed problem with rock […]
If I had to pick one stand out performer out of the dozen plus acts I saw at Pickathon outside of Portland last weekend, it would be Justin Townes Earle. I was lucky enough to be able to see him three different times, and after his first show we sat down for a quick interview. […]
I’ve seen this theme hashed out many times, in my blogs and blogs of others, on message boards, etc. etc. : How am I supposed to feel when one of my country heroes hooks up with a country zero of the modern pop country era? Whether you’re talking about the love fest between Hank Jr. […]
We always talk about Nashville and pop country being ‘fake’ or ‘plastic’ and I’m sure some people see these words as being figurative. But no, pop country is fake, FAKE! In the truest sense of the word. Don’t believe me?? From an article about ‘Pro Tools’ from the Nashville Scene: /“So what is this demon […]
This blog may not be for everybody, because it’s gonna be a very long and very involved one. But for a while people have been asking for info and my comments on the subject. It’s taken a while for me to put it out because I want to get what facts there are straight, and […]