John Waugh discusses the life and works of Hank Williams, his contemporaries, and musical descendants. And, for comparison’s sake, watch a modern music video of Hank Williams, based on a TV performance of his enduring classic “Cold, Cold Heart.” Learn more about Ray Price here, and check out his discography. Note for note, I’d rather listen to music cut live to tape in the Quonset Hut or RCA Studio B (or the Capitol Tower or Radio Recorders or Western Recorders in L.A) than the technically perfect but largely soulless digital productions of today. The tracking rooms were warm, the engineers knew the fine art of mic placement, the musicians listened to and played off each other as a complete performance and not in isolation, the tape had just enough tracks to enhance the result of all I just said and not so many that it led to assembly-line thinking. The late-’50s-to-late-’60s decade was a wonderful period in Nashville’s studios, the best in my view. Producers Don Law and Frank Jones knew how to get the best out of the great Nashville musicians, as did their colleagues Owen Bradley, Chet Atkins, Ken Nelson, Billy Sherrill, Jack Clement, Anita Kerr and the other great behind-the-glass people. Price, who was a couple of years away from entering the string-laden countrypolitan phase of his career, turns in his usual fine vocal performance.Īnd it’s so well recorded. The instrumental highlights are Buddy Emmons’ steel guitar and Tommy Jackson’s fiddle, with rhythm from Grady Martin and/or Charlie Harris on guitar, Bill Pursell on piano, Joe Zinkan on bass and Johnny Bush on drums. Harold played tic-tac (6-string baritone guitar) on the session. That’s the famous Quonset Hut studio formerly owned and operated by Owen and Harold Bradley. session at Columbia Recording Studio on 16th Avenue. But this is my all-time favorite version, a Ray Price album cut from 1964 that exemplifies for me the pinnacle of Nashville’s days as a recording center.īecause it’s Ray Price, you know going in that it’ll be a shuffle, and a fine shuffle it is. It was a huge hit for him, and dozens of others have recorded it, from Tony Bennett to Louis Armstrong to Norah Jones. 23: The history books tell us that Hank Williams wrote “Cold, Cold Heart” 59 years ago today. Recorded from Columbia LP in my collection.
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