May 26, 2026

Hello! It’s been too long. Life has been lifein’ quite a bit lately as they say. I’ve missed plenty of other birthdays and important musical land marks, but I have just a little bit of time so I thought I would acknowledge today’s, belonging to a one Randall Hank Williams. His deddy, Hiram, didn’t have a middle name, but the whole world called him Hank, so I think it’s alright that his son Randall goes by Hank Jr. You might be surprised at the amount of discourse I have seen this cause in comment sections.

In my opinion, Jr. suffers from a phenomenon that I am officially coining as “Skynyrd-itus“. The original idea I had around 3 years ago for this blog was to be a long form essay or something of that nature, about Lynyrd Skynyrd being the “Great American Band” and how unfortunate it is that they have become more of a brand these days, and are often written off as just some rednecks that do “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird”. Those are genuinely two of the greatest songs of all time, and rightfully appreciated as such, but there is just so much more to Skynyrd than people realize. Any who, that is another post in itself, and nowadays, I don’t know if there really is a single ‘Great American Band’, but I do think there is a compelling argument that “Free Bird” is the “Great American Song”. I say all that to say, Hank Jr suffers from the same thing as “Hank Sr’s redneck son who sings “A Country Boy Can Survive” (also one of the greatest songs ever written in the genre). Jr is one of the greatest country artists of all time, often overlooked for reputation, politics, or written off by those that are hairbrained enough to not look past the “Jr” and try to compare him to the mountainous shadow left by his father, which is truly unclimbable. I do believe that Hank Jr. is one of the greatest country singers and songwriters ever, and I’ll link some of my favorites below that may not be as well known.

Feelin’ Better – One of the greatest album openers ever in my opinion – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAB0N1nTaXU&list=RDhAB0N1nTaXU&start_radio=1

New South – Title track from the album that features “Feelin’ Better” and probably my personal favorite of Jr. penned songs – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIe4RX81SyU&list=RDWIe4RX81SyU&start_radio=1

O.D.’D in Denver – From Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound, this is about as outlaw country as it gets. – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lch1Qur-0k8&list=RDlch1Qur-0k8&start_radio=1

The Blues Man – Just one of his best. Songwriting and other wise – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAsuGQelsLw&list=RDQAsuGQelsLw&start_radio=1

Norwegian Wood – A cover, but one of the greatest songs ever written by Lennon/McCartney. I don’t think this will be everyone’s cup of tea but as a massive Beatles fan this is really cool. –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywMDzV16-EA&list=RDywMDzV16-EA&start_radio=1

I could’ve picked 20 more of his tunes to feature, but I’m short on time again. Hopefully I can get it together for another jams of the month post soon.

Jr is also responsible for some of my favorite album covers of all time. Case in point below.