Hank Cover Friday: Honky Tonkin' (plus more Lost Highway) - Updated!

When you are sad and lonely, and have no place to go,
Call me up, sweet baby, and bring along some dough...

Honky Tonkin' is a straightforward honky-tonk hit. One of my favorite Hank Williams songs. There's really nothing to the words, and the melody is very basic, but Hank still made it a classic.

Here are four cover versions of Honky Tonkin' and a live version by Hank:

Joe Ely - Honky Tonkin' (buy album).

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Honky Tonkin' (buy album).

Townes Van Zandt - Honky Tonkin' (buy album).

The The - Honky Tonkin' (buy album).

Hank Williams - Honky Tonkin' (Live) (buy album).

If you've got another cover version we should hear, send it along...

And now for some bonus coverage, here are three more versions of last week's "Hank" song, Lost Highway (words and music by Leon Payne):

Hank Williams - Lost Highway (Live Radio Recording) (buy album).

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Lost Highway (buy album).

Jason & The Scorchers - Lost Highway (Studio Version) (buy album).

UPDATE!:

Here are a few more tunes sent over by my loyal readers. Richard sent over this one from The Maddox Brothers & Rose:

Maddox Brothers & Rose – Honky Tonkin’ (buy album).

Robert sent one from Leon Russell:

Leon Russell – Lost Highway (buy album).

Lance suggested Doug Sahm’s live version of Honky Tonkin’ from the 1972 Thanksgiving Jam at Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin. The whole show can be found, in two parts, over at Captain’s Dead. Check out the great set list.

Thanks guys!

Hank* Cover Friday: Jason & The Scorchers - Lost Highway (Live)

You all know that Hank Williams was a top notch song writer. So it should come as no surprise that there are many great cover versions of Hank's songs. I was going to do a massive post of my favorites but decided instead to just let them trickle out one at a time. Friday seems like a good day for Hank covers, so let's get started with a real barn-burner from my favorite cow punk band:

Jason & The Scorchers – Lost Highway (Live) (buy album).

This one really captures the attitude that made Hank so great:

"I was just a lad, nearly 22, neither good nor bad, just a punk like you, but now I'm lost, too late to pay, just a-travelin' down that lost highway..."

Here's an extra-special bonus cover of a Jimmie Rodgers' blue yodel:

Jason & The Scorchers - Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel (Unplugged) (buy album).

It's a real train song from a guy wearing a real train hat.

"I love the women, and I love them all the same.
I love the women, and I love them all the same.
I love the women, but not enough to give them my name."

These songs come for the excellent Jason & The Scorchers collection called Wildfires & Misfires: Two Decades Of Outtakes & Rarities.

Make sure you check back here every Friday for a new Hank cover (while supplies last).

*UPDATE!: Major goof today. Turns out Hank didn't write "Lost Highway" after all. All these years I was giving him the credit that should have gone to Leon Payne. Thanks to Kylis for pointing this out. I'm still counting this as a Hank cover because I suspect Jason & The Scorchers had Hank in mind when they recorded it. Next time I'll try to do my homework.

Those Jangly Eighties, Vol 5: Jason & The Scorchers and The Beat Farmers

[For the background on this series, see here.]

Today’s featured style is cowpunk.

Pour yourself a cup of Old Grand-Dad (since 1882) and get ready for A COWPUNK SPECATCULAR!

In the 1980s, "alt-country" music used to be called “cowpunk.” It was a little harder than today's "No Depression" sound, which explains the “punk” part of the name, but nobody can explain where "cows" came in. The king of cowpunk bands was the legendary Jason & The Scorchers. If you like twangy music, you need to get to know this band. They took the hardest elements of country and rock and ran with them. Read bios here and here.

Let's start our Jason & the Scorchers tour with the excellent Fervor EP from 1983.

The first track is one of the all-time best Bob Dylan covers (perhaps eclipsed only by The Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man and Jimi Hendrix's All Along The Watchtower, but I may be forgetting a few):

Jason & The Scorchers – Absolutely Sweet Marie

In 1985, the band issued its magnum opus (and one of my top 25 albums of all time) Lost And Found. Check out these tracks:

Jason & The Scorchers – Shop It Around

Jason & The Scorchers – Broken Whiskey Glass

Jason & The Scorchers – Blanket Of Sorrow



Now listen to what they could do with an old country song:

ORIGINAL: Eddy Arnold– I Really Don’t Want To Know (buy album).

COVER: Jason & The Scorchers – I Really Don't Want To Know

Unfortunately, all of this stuff appears to be out of print, so you'll have to get in on e-bay. Just for fun, here's an absolutely killer Carl Perkins cover:

Jason & The Scorchers – Gone, Gone, Gone

Since this is turning into a covers post, it's time to mention my second favorite cowpunk band, The Beat Farmers. Read bios here and here.

My favorite Beat Farmers album is their debut, Tales From The New West, in part because of its excellent, countrified covers:

Beat Farmers – There She Goes Again (Velvet Underground Cover).

Beat Farmers – Reason To Believe (Bruce Springsteen Cover).




Tales of the New West was the Beat Farmers' twangiest record. Unfortunately it's out of print.

Flossie, the punk cow...

UPDATE:

I should have put this up in the post before. Here's the great You Tube clip linked in the comments: