4 Songs Hank Williams Wrote But Never Finished or Released

There were pieces of songs, some completed and others unfinished, that filled notebooks Hank Williams would keep inside a brown leather satchel. In 2006, one of Williams’ notebooks of songs was found, and some of his songs were later completed on the 2011 compilation, The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams, released nearly 60 years after his death.

Helping to bring some of Williams’ lost songs to life for the first time were a collection of artists who each completed and composed each track, including: Bob Dylan (“The Love That Faded”), who spearheaded the project, along with Rodney Crowell and Vince Gill (“I Hope You Shed a Million Tears”), Patty Loveless (“You’re Through Fooling Me”), Alan Jackson (“You’ve Been Lonesome, Too”), Lucinda Williams (“I’m So Happy I Found You”), Williams’ granddaughter Holly Williams (“How Blue is My Heart”), Merle Haggard (“The Sermon on the Mount”), and more by Levon Helm, Sheryl Crow, Gillian Welch with Norah Jones, and Jack White.

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“He had amazing handwriting, especially for a songwriter,” said Michael McCall, a historian at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “He’d write out his songs in a very formal way, and even dated them. So you can tell when they were done.”

Before his death on January 1, 1953, at the age of 29, Williams left behind nearly 70 unfinished and never-recorded songs, along with others he demoed, never completed, or recorded, that were later released by Johnny Cash, Jakob Dylan, Hank Williams Jr., and others.

“On the Evening Train”

Written by Hank Williams and Audrey Williams

“On the Evening Train” is the only song credited to Hank Williams and his wife, Audrey Williams. Though Williams recorded a demo with his wife, he can only be heard playing guitar on the recording. The first official recording of the song was released in 1949 by Molly O’ Day. In 2006, another version by Johnny Cash was released, posthumously, on the 2006 album American V: A Hundred Highways.

I heard the laughter at the depot
But my tears fell like the rain
When I saw them place that long white casket
In the baggage coach of the evening train

The baby’s eyes are red from weepin’
Its little heart is filled with pain
Oh, daddy cried, they’re taking mama
Away from us on the evening train

As I turned to walk away from the depot
It seemed I heard her call my name
Take care of baby and tell him darling
That I’m going home on the evening train

 “Oh, Mama, Come Home”

Original lyrics by Hank Williams; completed and composed by Jakob Dylan

On The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams, released in 2011, nearly 60 years after Williams’ death, the lost ballad “Oh, Mama, Come Home” was also heard for the first time through a rendition by Jakob Dylan, who helped finish the song and compose it.

Now I woke up this morning and I looked all ’round
‘Cause then I realized she’d left this town
Oh mama, come home, oh mama, come home
Oh, mama, come home, your daddy is all alone
There’s no one now to warm my bed at night
All my days are long and sad and filled with trouble and strife
Oh mama, come home, oh mama, come home
Oh, mama, come home, your daddy is all alone
Your daddy is getting worried so blue I can’t see
Cooking for these youngins is slowly killing me

“Countryfied”

When Williams wrote “Countrified” for his original guitarist, Big Bill Lester, he decided against recording it himself since it sounded too similar to his 1951 hit “Howlin’ at the Moon.” Lister released the first recording of the song that same year. “We had good reaction from the record people, the jukebox operators,” remembered Lister, “and it was very good for me.” Lister also recorded Williams’ “The Little House We Built (Just o’er the Hill).”

“There’s a Tear in My Beer”

In 1988, Hank Williams Jr. released a rendition of his father’s “There’s a Tear in My Beer,” a third song Williams wrote that was originally recorded by Lister in 1951. The posthumous duet, titled “Tear in My Beer,” features the original demo recording by Williams—which Lister gave to Williams Jr.—and won a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Collaboration, ACM and CMA awards for Video Of The Year, and another CMA for Vocal Event of the Year.

There’s a tear in my beer
‘Cause I’m cryin’ for you, dear
You are on my lonely mind
Into these last nine beers
I have shed a million tears
You are on my lonely mind

I’m gonna keep drinkin’
Until I’m petrified
And then maybe these tears
Will leave my eyes
There’s a tear in my beer
‘Cause I’m cryin’ for you dear
You are on my lonely mind

Photo: Hank Williams poses for a portrait circa 1948 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)