Settin’ the Woods on Fire · You Win Again

Hank Williams made his first records in Nashville on 11 December 1946, for the Sterling label. Fred Rose, the Nashville publisher who had first sought him out as a writer of songs for Molly O’Day, set up the date in the WSM studio. The Willis Brothers backed him: Guy Willis on guitar, Vic Willis on accordion, Skeeter Willis on fiddle and Charles Wright on bass. Four songs were cut that day, and four more on 13 February 1947, with Zeke Turner on electric guitar and Tommy Jackson on fiddle, among them “Honky Tonkin’.” On the strength of the Sterling records Rose placed him with MGM.

The first MGM session, on 21 April 1947 at Castle Studio in the Tulane Hotel, was also the first billed to Hank Williams and his Drifting Cowboys. Turner and Jackson were back, with Smokey Lohman on steel. “Move It on Over” from that date was a hit that fall, and “I Saw the Light” and “Six More Miles (to the Graveyard)” were later paired on MGM 10271. Castle remained his studio, with two exceptions in Cincinnati at E. T. Herzog’s studio on Race Street. On 22 December 1948, with Jerry Byrd on steel, he cut “Lovesick Blues,” a 1922 pop song by Cliff Friend and Irving Mills that reached number one in May 1949 and stayed there sixteen weeks. On 30 August 1949 he cut “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and “My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It,” issued back to back on MGM 10560. In between, a late session at Castle on 1 March 1949 produced “Mind Your Own Business” and “You’re Gonna Change (Or I’m Gonna Leave),” and an earlier set that evening included Leon Payne’s “Lost Highway.”

The Grand Ole Opry hired him, and he moved to Nashville in June 1949. From January 1950 his road band played on the records: Don Helms on steel, Jerry Rivers on fiddle and, soon, Sammy Pruett on electric guitar. After “Long Gone Lonesome Blues,” cut on 9 January 1950, nearly all his hits were songs he wrote himself. On 16 March 1951 the band recorded “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You)” and “Howlin’ at the Moon” for one single, and “Hey, Good Lookin’” for MGM K11000.

After back surgery in December 1951 he broke up the band. His 1952 sessions were billed to him alone, with Chet Atkins on electric guitar alongside Helms and Rivers. The session of 13 June produced “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” and “Settin’ the Woods on Fire,” and on 11 July he cut “You Win Again,” the other side of “Settin’ the Woods on Fire” on MGM K11318. His last session, on 23 September 1952, produced “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “Kaw-Liga” and “Take These Chains from My Heart.” He died on the road to a show in Canton, Ohio, and was pronounced dead early on 1 January 1953 in Oak Hill, West Virginia. Between 1953 and 1955 MGM had new backing dubbed onto some of his unissued recordings and released them as singles.

Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.