August 27, 2005

HANK WILLIAMS LIVES!

        What wonderful songs would the great Hank Williams, dead at age 29, have written had he lived to middle age? Horsefeathers thinks the answer has now been given by Delbert McClinton, a similarly gifted, though lesser known, artist and addict, who managed to outlive his addiction. He's listened, absorbed and transmuted Hank Williams's ballads of loss into something his very own, rooted in his own struggles. The 65 year old McClinton's whisky and tobacco roughened Texas voice is perfectly suited to deliver a new elegiac masterpiece, Midnight Communion. In an age of debased popular as well as high art, Delbert McClinton should be recognized as an American national treasure. Go to your imusic store, or Amazon for a musical equivalent of a Gentleman Jack on the rocks.