Rare Hank Williams Live Recordings To Be Released in May

On May 20, 2014, Omnivore Recordings will release The Garden Spot Programs, 1950 - featuring 24 previously unreleased live performances, unheard for 64 years, by the iconic Hank Williams. The set will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats. Get the full scoop about these rare programs here!

On May 20, 2014, Omnivore Recordings will release The Garden Spot Programs, 1950 - featuring 24 previously unreleased live performances, unheard for 64 years, by the iconic Hank Williams. The set will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats. 

The Garden Spot Programs, 1950 features fully restored audio material from shows that originally aired more than six decades ago from the four episodes that are known to exist. The set follows up Omnivore's collectible 10" vinyl Record Store Day EP sampler.

The CD edition includes rare photos and liner notes from set producer and Williams biographer Colin Escott, who writes:  “Set the time machine for early morning on KSIB-AM, Creston, Iowa. February 1950. Country radio was beginning its slow transition from live music to DJ shows. Live music and DJ shows were augmented by transcribed shows. After buying 15 minutes of airtime on small-market stations, sponsors would prerecord shows with well known artists, duplicate them, and ship them out on 12 or 16-inch transcribed discs.”

“That’s how Hank Williams came to be on KSIB in February 1950. Sandwiched between the local ‘live’ acts, it was almost as if he were visiting with Skeets and those Radio Rascals. His sponsor was one of the nation’s largest plant nurseries, Naughton Farms, seven hundred miles south in Waxahachie, Texas. Given that Naughton was a big player in the nursery business, Hank’s shows were almost certainly shipped to many small stations, but only KSIB’s copies survived. Those of us who have studied Hank’s life and career had no idea that these recordings existed.”

“It’s incredible to me that we’re still finding new recordings by my dad — great ones at that,” says Jett Williams. “No one even suspected that these recordings existed. We partnered with Omnivore Recordings for this release, and I especially love it that they're taking my dad back to vinyl.”

Click here to view a trailer for the release. 

Track Listing:

1. The Garden Spot Jingle

2. Lovesick Blues

3. A Mansion On The Hill

4. Fiddle Tune

5. I've Just Told Mama Goodbye

6. Closing/Oh! Susanna

7. The Garden Spot Jingle

8. Mind Your Own Business

9. Lovesick Blues

10. Fiddle Tune

11. At The First Fall Of Snow

12. Closing/Oh! Susanna

13. The Garden Spot Jingle

14. I Can't Get You Off Of My Mind

15. I Don't Care (If Tomorrow Never Comes)

16. Fiddle Tune

17. Farther Along

18. Closing/Oh! Susanna

19. The Garden Spot Jingle

20. I’ll Be A Bachelor ’Til I Die

21. Wedding Bells

22. Fiddle Tune

23. Jesus Remembered Me

24. Closing/Oh! Susanna

 

Tracks 1 - 6 taken from Naughton Farms Garden Spot Show #4

Tracks 7 - 12 taken from Naughton Farms Garden Spot Show #9

Tracks 13 - 18 taken from Naughton Farms Garden Spot Show #10

Tracks 19 - 24 taken from Naughton Farms Garden Spot Show #11

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