I signed up for a Hank Williams tribute at Godfrey’s, held tonight at Godfrey’s on the 60th anniversary of his death at the age of 29. I did the opening set to a full house and did I Can’t Help It if I’m Still in Love with You, Lost Highway, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, and My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It. I also added a Jimmy Rogers tune, Mother, Queen of my Heart, and a Paul Siebel song Louise, both of which rang a HW bell with me. The Hank tunes were relatively new to me, and were a challenge to sing. I’m used to trying to hit a note, but Hank did some really nice slides that were breaking vocal ground for me.
The audience was interesting. An article came out in the Morning Call and attracted an older and largely new crowd to Godfrey’s, so they were fun to break in. I had some new musician friends sit in on fiddle, steel and electric guitar on some of the songs, but I stuck to the ole 3 minute versions on the tapes. And we rocked out on the last one. The set was received very nicely, especially amongst the players.
Three other songwriters chipped in with similar half hour sets, with the band sitting in. The whole night was quite a success, and it was nice to be a slice of it. And even better to go on early and be done…..
Not too many gigs coming up though, but it was a good run through Christmas and New Years.