Live at the Grand Ole Opry

I am so glad to have this in my collection. It is worth owning just for the original performance of "Lovesick Blues" at the Opry, the moment that catapulted the King of Country into the stratosphere and elicited six encores at the time. Some of the comedy is corny for today but it is still a great time capsule of what the Grand Ole Opry was like for listeners all across the country before the birth of rock 'n roll. This is a must have for any fan of Hank Williams.

this is so sweet. its an awsome live album by mr williams sr. kinda makes you feel like your there watching the concert in person, so i give this one a 5 stars for sure. long live the king hank williams sr.

For a guy who died before he turned 30, Williams' catalogue is astounding in volume. But this latest addition is a bit of a sick joke. Throughout much of his career, the deleterious country singer and the stodgy ole Opry had what could best be described as - ahem - a strained relationship. The Opry, with an audience of millions, insisted on predictability from its performers. For Hank, that meant cranking out the hits with zero elaboration on his talent. But Williams was also chronically self-destructive and indifferent to schedules. For the Opry, such impudence was tantamount to heresy. But Williams was so popular, they were forced to bend their own rules until they kicked him out forever after repeated no-shows in 1952. But despite such a fractious partnership, this stuttered collection of Williams live on the Opry stage between 1949 and 1952 remains a testament to the tortured musician's brilliance, not the prudence of the hoity-toity GOO. In addition to loads of unreleased material, the big difference between this and previous releases is that Williams' appearances are put in the context of the Opry variety show (particularly on the second CD, which is a radio broadcast of one complete show in 1950). Historically speaking, the comedy bits between the songs are an irritating embarrassment; various displays of painful jokemeistering, hillbilly foolishness and a prolonged and excruciating Minnie Pearl routine that bombs like the Enola Gay. Not so with Williams. More than 50 years after these crackly and prehistoric live recordings were made, Williams' graveyard bluegrass/blues and famished n' horny coyote howl are as plaintively substantial as ever; from his first hit (Lovesick Blues, You're Gonna Change) until his final performances (Window Shopping, Long Gone Lonesome Blues). Nobody, not the Opry, God or Williams himself, were able to diminish his reputation as a fascinating and genuine talent unequalled in country music.

For those of you who own THE COMPLETE HANK WILLIAMS box set, this CD looks like a mere duplication of CD #10. It really isn't. It's substantially better. Well worth owning at the right price.

Five of the tracks ("I Can't Help It," "Wedding Bells," "Jambalaya," "Window Shopping," and "Half as Much") are brand new and excellent. The first and last are especially outstanding. Additionally, there are six new song versions that are generally longer and better than the versions on the set. "Long Gone Lonesome Blues," with more vocal inflection than any other, is the best live version. "Why Don't You Love Me," "Moanin' the Blues," and "Nobody's Lonesome for Me" are longer versions than on the set. "Cold, Cold Heart" has more feeling than the set version, although I prefer the set version for the violin quality of the fiddle.

Ignore the second disc; it's [not that great]. I suspect Mercury stuck this on so that the set would roughly correspond in quality and length to their HEALTH AND HAPPINESS set. The latter, while essential to own, totals only 96 minutes and has lots of filler with eight versions of "Happy Rovin' Cowboy," and "Sally Goodin'," plus Audrey's screeches, etc. Disc one of LIVE AT THE GRAND OLE OPRY makes the whole thing worthwhile.

In conclusion, Disc One of LIVE AT THE GRAND OLE OPRY is worth owning. Look for a good used copy, or an inexpensive new copy, of this. It probably isn't worth paying the retail price for this product, any more than the HEALTH AND HAPPINESS SHOWS is worth the full retail price. ...

This 2-CD set brings together some truly sublime performances (the Grand Ole Opry armed forces debut of "Lovesick Blues" and "Move It On Over") on disc 1, but little of consequence is contained on disc 2. The "Move It On Over" track was 'recently discovered' in Mercury's vaults, but most of these live recordings were released on the 10-CD box set, lending truth to my suspicion that Mercury is hoarding the majority of these unearthly live performances and will release them one at a time, packaging them around fill (as in disc 2 of this set), intending to fleece the pockets of Hank Williams, Sr. fans. I would think that CD sales figures from Nashville's highest paid lap dancer (Shania Twain) should be more than enough to sustain Mercury's profit-hungry accounting department. This box set proves that to be wrong.