Barry Mazor nailed part of what makes Snow so enjoyable for me, and the
perceptive comment about Snow being a very "white" singer explains part of
what made his stuff so interesting to me when I discovered him, along about
1971, when I came across a copy of his Travellin' Blues album, a collection
of songs (some or all of which may have been previously released) from
country music's early days, notably Jimmie Rodgers numbers. Snow had a lot
of Rodgers to him, both the sentimental trash (<-per Mr. Dylan) side and the
blues side, too. Now, Jimmie Rodgers' blues stuff often has that straight,
non-note-bending "white" side to it around the 3rd (less so around the 7th),
but Snow's almost always has it, and to someone like me, who had listened to
a lot of Black blues, it was fascinating how the rhythms were changed and
the bends straightened out. Barry mentions his nasality, but what has
always struck me more is his precise enunciation, a real model of clarity
like Hank Thompson's. You get every damn syllable with these Hanks, with
nary a "what was that line?" in their thousands of combined recordings.
That's my idea of serving the song <g>.
BTW, I was the one who expressed a preference for Hank Snow over Hank
Williams, and I was pretty careful to qualify it in terms of simple
enjoyment. I wouldn't care to make a case that he's more important or
better; I just find that if I'm going to go on a Hank listening jag, it's
more likely to be Snow or Thompson than the Senior guy.
Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
>>>Website revised 2/1/99<<<
