This Hank Williams box set is absolutely one of the most extravagant items in our music collection. It’s a rather massive set containing 15 CD’s, one DVD, a hardcover book, a poster and a puzzle. Everything except the puzzle is housed inside a cardboard box shaped like an old time tube radio. And you know the funniest thing about it? The radio actually works, sort of. When you turn the power knob, it starts to play a radio jingle.

The release purports to almost double Hank Williams’ recorded output. And you know, I can just about believe that! I’ve seen a couple of box sets claiming to be “complete” collections of the country icon’s recordings, and all of them have had around 10 CD’s in them. So a 15 CD set is definitely set to double that.

This is a special set, not only because of its packaging. I would call the contents even culturally significant. You see, contained here are the contents of about 30 acetates (out of 72 known to have existed) which Hank Williams and his band The Drifting Cowboys recorded for his 1951 daily radio show, sponsored by flour manufacturer Mother’s Best. They capture the country icon in the raw, performing live in the studio with his band, banter and all.

Back in the day, it used to be a nice side hustle for country musicians to host sponsored radio shows on local radio stations. It’d usually be a 15 minute or so set a set number of days every week. Usually, the performances were aired live, with the artist pushing the products of their sponsor between songs. However, Hank had risen to such fame that his touring schedule made daily appearances impossible.

So he pre-recorded his shows on acetates. And luckily, many of them were stored for posterity in decent shape. Decent enough for a few audio engineering wizards to clean them up for this release, which has very fine sound for the most part.

These acetates present Hank as most have never heard him. He performs both famous hits and popular classics, and obviously sounds like his trademark self when he sings. It’s between songs that the magic happens. Hank, known for his forlorn and lovesick songs, engages in light banter and playful joking with his band and the show host Cousin Louie Buck.

Sure, some of the banter is definitely scripted. But I’m betting a lot of it isn’t – or the world lost a stellar actor in Hank Williams. There’s a definite chemistry between Buck and Williams, the two trading playful half-insults and joking at each other’s expense, making good hearted fun of the product they’re pushing and the songs Hank sings. Hank sounds spirited, fun and like he’s genuinely enjoying himself.

For fans of Hank Williams, these recordings bring the country icon closer. They add a genuine human side to him, adding something real to the country giant only familiar from black-and-white photos.

This set also contains some of my favourite performances by Hank. Especially his sad, melancholy rendition of On Top Of Old Smokey is, or should be, a classic. As he himself introduces it, he performs the song as it was originally performed, not in the more upbeat and poppy arrangements popularized by singing cowboy Gene Autry.

A lot of Hank’s biggest hits, such as Hey Good Lookin’ and Ramblin’ Man are missing. On the other hand, some songs are performed several times. And after sitting through all 15 CD’s, the listener will be sick to death of Lovesick Blues, as it is used as both the opening and closing song for each show. Which means it’s played a lot on this set!

Hank also features plenty of guests during his sets, most of whom have faded to complete obscurity by now. And yes, he does permit then-wife Audrey Williams to grab the microphone as well, to the delight of none. Because, quite frankly, Audrey Williams was a bad singer. She might have been a decent third rate singer if she’d known the limits of her voice. But she didn’t. And the end result rips and tears the listenere’s ears.

The DVD is a pretty throwaway thing including interviews with surviving band members and Hank Williams’ daughter Jett Williams, who never even met her father. Worth one watch, and that’s about it. The book contains nice photos and track by track dissections of the acetates. Worth perusing through. But the real draw is obviously the music on the CD’s.

Apparently, the story of the acetates is long and winding. Their existence was known already in the 70’s, if not earlier, and many of them were transferred to analog tape in the early 80’s. However, decades of legal debacles and ownership limbo prevented their release. It took until the noughties before things were settled in courtrooms and the estate of the country icon, led by Jett and her brother, country legend in his own right, Hank Williams Jr. And then, finally, the work could start on digitizing, cleaning up, restoring and publishing the recordings.

The end result is, as already established, almost revelatory to country music fans. These recordings are essential to fans of Hank and old country, both due to the strong performances and the deeper, more nuanced understanding of the tragic country legend they present.

And these are fun recordings to listen to. As long as you don’t over indulge.

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In From The Vaults we take a dive into the record collection at Only Death Is Real HQ and write about about items of iconic stature or personal significance; rarities and oddities from the archives; obscure gems that deserve more attention; classics of yore deserving of a moment in the limelight; and so on.