Memories of Hank Williams Sr. (2000)

This was actually better than I thought it would be. It is clearly another example of Willie paying back an old friend. Willie joined Butler’s band in 1958, so Butler clearly helped Willie get started in the business. Larry Butler had always dreamed of making a Hank Williams tribute album, so Willie helps him do it. Willie’s vocals are wonderful. The setting is spare, featuring a fine fiddle and a classic steel guitar. But Willie only sings half of every song, and Larry Butler doesn’t do much for me. If you could remove Butler’s vocals and just listen to Willie sing these songs with this band, you’d have quite an album. It’s great to hear Willie sing Hank straight up. Of course Willie loves singing about tears and being “so lonesome [he] could cry.” “Half as Much” reminds me of “Half a Man.” “If you only loved me half as much as I loved you.” I’d settle for the crumbs of your love. Just half of your love. It seems that much of Willie’s music deals in halves. Paradoxes on the one hand, and half measures on the other. Love cut in half, separated. Unrequited love is half-love, which is worse, more painful, than no love. It is a case where ½ is worse than zero. Less than zero. Because the half taunts and teases you with the half you don’t have but desire even more because of the taste, the half, you have. Does he really mean “May You Never Be Alone Like Me”? He sings, “I believe the lies you told to me when you whispered, dear, I’ll worship thee…I gave up my friends, I left my home when you promised to be mine alone, and now you’re gone and our love can never be.” Here, again, is that wry, sardonic tone from “Funny How Time Slips Away.” You promised to love me forever, but forever didn’t last too long. This would be the opposite of Jo Dee Messina’s “Somebody’s gonna give you a lesson in leaving.” Or maybe it is the same. I hope someone does you wrong the way you did me wrong. I hope someone will show you how short forever can be. “Move it On Over” shows how fickle love can be. Big dogs replacing small dogs. Partners changing at the drop of a hat. And so it goes. This reminds me of Murasaki’s The Tale of Genji. The endless soap opera of fickle love, fleeting relationships. “Wedding Bells” tells of a scorned lover being invited to his former lover’s wedding. “Dear, I hope your happy just the same.” Does he really? “Those wedding bells will never ring for me.” This is another one of those songs where Willie is trying to convince himself, half-heartedly, that he doesn’t care. “Please let me pretend that I am there.” Let me marry you in my mind. “Your Cheatin’ Heart” says it all. Hank Williams is the Plato of honky tonk. All of country music is a footnote to Hank. This is a “you’ll be sorry” song. I’m crying now, but you’ll be crying soon. What goes around comes around. It’s like the imprecatory psalms in the old testament. We want our enemies, those who have done us wrong, to feel the same pain we feel. You’ll “crave the love you threw away…the time will come when you’ll be blue. Your cheatin’ heart will tell on you…tears [will] come down like falling rain. You’ll toss around and call my name. You’ll walk the floor the way I do.” And then he sings, “Why can’t I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold, cold heart”? “And so my heart is paying now for things I didn’t do.” Mind games of the heart. Heart and mind and their interaction. That’s Willie and Hank in a nutshell. Hearts trying to convince minds and minds trying to sway hearts. “I can’t stay here any longer ‘cause my sweet love ain’t around.” “My Sweet Love Ain’t Around.” “Hey Good Lookin’” has Willie sweet talkin’ a new love. Trying to coax time and love to slip away from some other fool. Seducing forever. Funny how we always think the next new thing will be the best forever. Newness is the very opposite of timelessness, and yet we crave it as if it were the same thing. Our very craving leads us astray, away from forever. Fittingly, then, Willie ends in a pool of tears in “(I Heard that) Lonesome Whistle.” He sings, “All I do is sit and cry.” The cryingest cowboy who ever lived. As much as I don’t care for Larry Butler’s vocals, the fiddle and steel, Willie’s vocals, and Hank’s lyrics make this one worth owning.