You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'Men With Broken Hearts' tag.
"Men With Broken Hearts" | Hank Williams
August 12, 2010 in 3 Chords a Day | Tags: 3 Chords a Day, classic country, country music, Country Music Hall of Fame, Fred Rose, Hank Williams, Kevin Paulk, Luke The Drifter, Men With Broken Hearts, MGM Records | 4 comments
Country Music Hall of Fame,
About the record: B-side of MGM K10932, recorded Dec. 21, 1950, at Castle Studio in downtown Nashville. Released March 16, 1951, under artist name Luke The Drifter.
I'm of the opinion that death was a great career move for Hank Williams. He was a super peformer, for sure, and a top-notch songwriter. But with a personal life in shambles and some rough hillbilly edges that were certain to resist smoothing, it's not clear he'd have fared well in the coming Nashville Sound and countrypolitan eras.
In that vein, here's one of a series of performances that were so preachy and un-commercial that he and his mentor Fred Rose developed a separate personna and nom de sermon under which to market them: Luke The Drifter. I suppose you could say ol' Hank was a charter Hall of Famer despite works like this. But they do point to his ability to paint a picture with his lyrics, and it's hard to get long-gone-lonesomer than this recitation.
Longtime followers here know that a song can't be too treacly for me; "Men With Broken Hearts" is proof. After all, as Luke himself says, it's written that the greatest men never get too big to cry.
Hank Williams' Hall of Fame profile.
Next up: Roy Acuff