Hank Thompson

I became aware of this fella when I happened to see one of his cd's in the front bin at J& R Music World in Manhattan. I used to roam through there when I had a job as a dog walker in the neighborhood. The second floor had all the goodies: blues, jazz and country. I spotted a 'best of' collection of Hank Thompson and bought it on the spot simply because he was posing with his heavily customized Gibson Super 400 on the cover. I thought, "if he's got that great a taste in guitars, he's got to be good." Sure enough... that was my introduction to the legendary country singer. A long time musical partner with Merle Travis, Hank brought a bit more of a 'pop' feel to the western swing sound of the late 40's/early 50's.

Here's a dy-no-mite video of Hank doing his hit, "Whoa Sailor," complete with transitional and iconic instruments in the background. Aside from Hank's Super 400, there's a Bigsby triple neck pedal steel, a Fender electric bass and what looks to be another Gibson Super 400, played by the band's rhythm guitarist. I love this clip simply for the fact that it captures Hank's music in a transistional phase: this clip is from the early 60's, a time when Western Swing was not the cutting edge sound it once was. Nevertheless, here's Hank's big band, complete with dueling fiddles and secondary electric archtop guitar, hangover elements of the 40's/50's. Note the electric Fender bass being plucked in the background, an indication of Hank's adoption of modern technology into his band. The electric bass is a compact instrument able to pump out a loud and commanding sound without taking up the precious stage real estate once occupied by an upright bass. The design of Fender's Precision & Jazz basses (basically a larger Telecaster) made it easy for guitar players to make the switch to bass whereas upright required its own technique.