It was gratifying to see Hank Williams all over the news in Cincinnati last month.
A citizen’s group called The Cincinnati Music Foundation is working hard to get a commemorative marker installed at the site of the Herzog Studio. Hank Williams and many other country artists traveled to Cincinatti in the late 40’s to record some of the biggest classics of the time.
The Foundation earlier had a marker placed at the historic King Studios where many famous Black R and B legends recorded. Wouldn’t it have been great if accidently Hank had met and recorded a duet with one of the R and B greats? Didn’t happen I guess. I mention this as I recall the story that Jimmie Rodgers’ great classic ‘Standin on the Corner’ has Louis Armstrong on trumpet and Fatha Hines on piano. That’s the legend anyway.
An all star concert was held August 22nd to raise money for the project.
The studio site is important for Hank fans because two of Hank’s greatest recordings, his breakthrough upbeat rockabillky tinged classsic ‘Lovesick Blues’ and the heartbreaking anthem to loneliness ‘I’m so Lonesone I Could Cry’ were both recorded there in 1948 and 49. So there is added importance since this is the 60th anniversay of the second session.
Tip of the hat to the Hank Williams’ Discography which I’ve linked to on the contact list to the right for the following information.
Here are the Hank Williams recordings at Herzog from December 22, 1948:
Lost on the River
There’ll be no Teardrops Tonight
I Heard My Mother Praying For Me
Lovesick Blues
From August 30, 1949
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
A House Without Love is Not a Home
I Just Don’t Like This Kind of Living
My Buckets Got a Hole in It
Here’s a partial list of Country Music artists who recorded at Herzog.
Delmore Brothers, Patti Page, Homer and Jethro, Rex Allen, Flatt and Scruggs, Cowboy Copas, Bill Carlisle, Moon Mullican, Hawkshaw Hawkins.
Apparently, one of the reasons for the trip north was the Pleasant Valley Boys, a group of Nashville all stars who moved to Cincinnati to appear on WLW Radio and a local Jamboree as well as playing back up at Herzog.
The personel on Hank’s recording at Herzog were: Tommy Jackson, fiddle; Jerry Byrd, steel; Zeke Turner, electric guitar; Louis Innes, rhythm; Clyde Baum, mandolin; and on bass, Willie Thawl in 48, and Ernie Newton in Aug. 49.
A Hank Williams Journal 
This site definitely deserves a plaque! Cincinnati ought to show some pride in its country music heritage and install the plaque itself.
I’m working on a biography of Homer & Jethro, and Cincinnati positively BUGS me. All of the history in Knoxville, Nashville, and Chicago is well-preserved. Cincinnati, where so much music history was made (never mind just H&J, the Herzog studios, King Records, WLW, and all the country legends who called it home in the 1940s), acts like nothing ever happened there. It’s frustrating, not only from the research perspective, but as a FAN.
Thankfully, the chief music librarian at the Cincinnati library (Brian Powers) is one of the people on a mission to preserve (dare I say RESTORE) the music history of Cincinnati to its rightful place.
BTW, Hank was the first person to say of Homer & Jethro, “No song can truly be considered a hit until Homer & Jethro butcher it.” They recorded seven parodies of Williams songs, more than any other country singer.
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