I was starting to work on next week’s Valentine’s Day post and I started to think about all the songs Hank Williams wrote about mean women and heartbreak. And it occurred to me that Cover Freak is almost two and a half years old and I hadn’t posted a tribute to Hank. I don’t know how that’s even possible, but that injustice ends today.

Beck “Your Cheatin’ Heart” (Hank Williams)
By Beck’s standards this song is quite straightforward and unadorned. It’s very dreamy and ethereal, almost completely detached as he contemplates his unfaithful lover. This comes from a pretty good tribute album that came out a couple of years ago.

Andre Williams And 2 Star Tabernacle “Ramblin’ Man” (Hank Williams)
I have a version of this song that features Tuvan throat singing, but I decided to go with a version that’s a bit more accessible. It starts out chugging along nicely and then devolves into something that sounds like the unholy love child of  Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Cocker.

Camper Van Beethoven “Six More Miles To The Graveyard” (Hank Williams)
Let’s do one more from CVB, shall we? This has gotta be the most cheerful song ever recorded about burying your dead lover. Get up and dance a frisky little two-step. You know you want to.

The Residents “Kaw-Liga” (Hank Williams)
The concept of the Residents covering Hank is weird enough. The execution is every bit as bizarre as you would expect.

Johnny Dowd “Pictures From Life’s Other Side” (Hank Williams)
This is what I imagine it would sound like if Tom Waits covered a Hank Williams song. Lots of low-fi skronk going on here. I love the drumming, it’s like repeatedly getting your head slapped.

Thore “Alone And Forsaken” (Hank Williams)
This is one of the most chilling songs ever written. It truly is the sound of hopeless desperate heartbreak. There’s something about the baritone vocals in this song that really increases the doom factor. Even if he does change the line “the whippoorwills cry” to “the whippets will cry.” Whippets have been known to bark, but never to cry.