Previously
Unreleased Music From Hank Williams
Surfaces In The Garden Spot Programs, 1950
On May 20, Omnivore Recordings
will issue 24 songs and jingles
Recorded in Nashville, and last heard generations
ago
Omnivore
Recordings will soon release the full-length
version of The Garden Spot Programs, 1950,
featuring 24 performances, unheard for 64 years,
from country music legend Hank Williams. Rescued
from obscurity, these shows originally aired more
than six decades ago; The Garden Spot Programs,
1950 collects material from the four episodes now
known to exist. Due out May 20, 2014, the set
follows the release of Omnivore’s
collectible 10” vinyl Record Store Day EP
sampler.
From hits to standards to songs rarely (if ever)
performed, this is pure Hank Williams, including
playful between-song banter. Featuring fully
restored audio, The Garden Spot Programs, 1950 is
an exceptional listening experience.
Painstakingly transferred, restored and mastered
from original transcription discs by Grammy Award
winning engineer Michael Graves. Williams’
daughter, Jett, is excited that her father’s
lost material is not only seeing the light of day
decades later, but will be available on CD,
digital and LP.
The CD packaging contains rare photos and liner
notes from the collection of set co-producer and
Williams biographer Colin Escott. Also available
on LP, the first pressing will be on limited
edition, translucent red vinyl (with black vinyl
to follow), containing Escott’s informative
notes and a download card.
Escott writes in his notes: “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.”
Any music from Hank Williams is worth
celebrating. Discovering material that has been
unheard for generations is monumental.
“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.”
Omnivore
Recordings will soon release the full-length
version of The Garden Spot Programs, 1950,
featuring 24 performances, unheard for 64 years,
from country music legend Hank Williams. Rescued
from obscurity, these shows originally aired more
than six decades ago; The Garden Spot Programs,
1950 collects material from the four episodes now
known to exist. Due out May 20, 2014, the set
follows the release of Omnivore’s
collectible 10” vinyl Record Store Day EP
sampler.