Hank Snow- Souvenirs

DSCN4843 (800x778)This was one dollar.  Hank Snow, perhaps the most famous Canadian country artist ( I am biased), was born in Nova Scotia in 1914.  His upbringing was hard as his father died young, his mother and step father(s) struggled and he endured both physical and mental abuse from various guardians.  At age 12, he ran off to sea to become a cabin boy.  After reeling in the bug bucks ($58), he bought himself a guitar and chord book out of a Eaton’s catalog for $5.98.  He had previously played his mothers steel guitar and showed talent.  hanksnow

Hard jobs and struggle continued, but Snow persevered and modeled himself after Jimmie Rodgers until he started gaining success signing a contract with the Canadian division of RCA Victor and becoming a national radio star. Soon enough Nashville got wind and Snow moved down to the US where he would become a star in the States.Hank Snow Getty Michael Ochs Archives circa 1970

Snow was influential in the career of Elvis Presley.  Snow first got him an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.  He also used Elvis as an opening act for a while.  For better or for worse, Snow introduced Elvis to Colonel Tom Parker.  Parker and Snow entered into a partnership to manage Elvis in 1955.  However, Parker somehow got Snow out of the picture, taking full control of Elvis’ career.  From that point on, Snow had little nice to say about Parker.

elvis_HankSnow

 

This record was made to celebrate the Silver Anniversary of Snow’s signing to RCA Victor in 1936.  It was released in 1961.  The songs, all staples of Snow’s career to date, were re-recorded in Nashville by Chet Atkins.  So this is an album of reboots.  The songs all have the classic Hank Snow elements to them.  In some cases, backup vocals, instrumentation, and a stronger back beat are added to give them a new twist while not deviating terribly from the source material.  Webb Pierce did something similar to this on an earlier post. DSCN4844 (800x798)

For a sample, there were a few songs I really liked re-worked, but I settled with one that he wrote, “I”m Movin On”, which has a stronger back beat and more backup vocals than its original version which is posted below.

Top Rated Record.

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