Now, this is a story!

It was written by Robin and Linda Williams, who sing it here, backed by some of the best session men in bluegrass. That's Jerry Douglas on dobro, Sam Bush on mandolin, and Stuart Duncan on fiddle, giving it plenty of Cajun flavor.

I think I even remember this performance. If memory serves, it's from a predominantly-bluegrass New Year's Eve concert -- 2007 maybe? -- which aired on PBS for Prairie Home Companion. Everybody brought their A game that night, and it was one of the shows that pushed me further toward bluegrass music.

This is "Rollin' and Ramblin' (The Death Of Hank Williams).

Outside of hardcore bluegrass fans, Charlie Moore is not widely known. That’s a pity because, as you’ll hear, he had the perfect voice for bluegrass.

He attracted plenty of superior musicians to his band, The Dixie Partners. That’s Butch Robins, who would later become a Blue Grass Boy, on banjo; and Paul “Moon” Mullins, Joe’s daddy, tearing it up on fiddle.

You know this tune. It’s from the pen of Hank Williams, and it’s called “I’ll Fly Away”.

Dave Evans, one of the most moving singers in bluegrass, turns “I Heard That Lonesome Whistle” into a high lonesome singer’s showcase.

Betty Jean Robinson is best known as a singer of southern gospel, but she’s at her best when she infuses her work with a country edge. This recording, made with Lester Flatt and The Nashville Grass, blows all the others away. What tenderness, what empathy and sadness Robinson brings to Hank Williams's “Tramp On the Street”.

By the time CMH Records issued this compilation of performances spanning the years from 1959 to 1992, a lot of folks thought Jimmy Martin was washed up. The performances on “Songs Of a Freeborn Man” prove he was anything but.

CMH has uploaded several tracks from this CD to YouTube, so you can judge for yourself. This is one of my favorites, a duet with Jett Williams on a song written by her father, Hank Williams – “Mansion On the Hill”.

Songwriter School

Waylon Jennings live from 1975, with one of his signature songs — and some genuine insight into how a songwriter dashes off a hit, “in 10 minutes”.