THE REAL BAD BLAKE: HANK THOMPSON

A couple of days ago, I posted about the cool new film Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges as a down-on-his-luck country music legend. I compared him to Kristofferson (mainly because he looks like him) and Jennings.   It turns out that Bridgs' character, Bad Blake, is based on Hank Thompson.  The film was based on a 1987 novel written by a guy named Thomas Cobb. Read more about it at the L.A. Times Pop & Hiss blog.

I had a passing familiarity with him, I just knew the song "The Wild Side Of Life." So I went to iTunes and downloaded a few more, "A Six-Pack To Go," "Bubbles In My Beer" (written by the late great Cindy Walker, Willie Nelson does a great version also) and "I'll Sign My Heart Away." I recommend the songs highly, but if you go to iTunes, beware: there are lots of "re-recorded" versions of his songs. Lots of times artists changing labels would make a quick buck, and also thwart their former labels, by re-recording their hits to sell CDs (and licence tracks) for their new label. I'm not saying the newer versions are bad, but I myself wanted the originals. It seems like the 1965 album A Six Pack To Go is the best one.