He provided something that was a really big part of my family and culture from whence I came –  Saturday night sinning and Sunday morning redemption.  They go hand in hand.  It’s that Scots-Irish thing … that’s what Hank William’s music sounded like to me.

[audio:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2251996/The-Lost-Notebooks-of-Hank-Williams.mp3]

The Lost Notebooks of Hank  Williams (MP3) is a radio documentary on the 2011 Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams project.

When Hank Williams was found dead in the back of a Cadillac, he had in his possession a brown leather briefcase containing four notebooks filled with song ideas. The books were put in the possession of Williams’ publisher. They remained hidden away in a vault for decades. When Acuff-Rose was bought by Sony Music Publishing in 2002, the unpublished Williams material was transferred.

Sony Music asked Bob Dylan to put music to some of the lyrics. Dylan brought other contributors on board: Merle Haggard, Lucinda Williams, Levon Helm, Alan Jackson, Norah Jones, Jack White,Vince Gill and Rodney Crowell, Patty Loveless, Jakob Dylan,Sheryl Crow and Holly Williams.

The Levon Helm and Jack White adaptations are bang on.