Hank Snow cornered the market in tragic country music in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. ‘When Tragedy Struck’ transported him into an area of aching lovelorn, future-fearing balladeering some way from the “multi-syllable, uptempo chants” that the original sleeve talks of. From the off the melancholy switch is up to 11 and you know that not even the dog is going to get out alive. Twice.
There’s an overpowering feeling of sadness, a mournful hue to everything on this album. Like the bittersweet vocal of Gram Parsons on The Flying Burrito Brothers’ ‘Gilded Palace Of Sin’, Townes Van Zandt’s yearning moments or George Jones at his most lonesome, Hank Snow has the knack to drop a gear and make everything seem beautifully hopeless.
“In this album of sorrow…” the sleevenotes announce, Hank Snow is joined by The Rainbow Ranch Boys and Elvis backing singers The Jordinaires who ladle on the angst through 11 memorable songs.
The sleeve describes the unfolding tragedy thus: ‘The Letter Edged In Black’ (sheer sentiment, pathos), ‘Old Shep’ and ‘Little Buddy’ (heartbreak when a boy’s best friend is put to sleep), ‘The Prisoner's Prayer’, ‘The Convict And The Rose’, ‘I'm Here To Get My Baby Out Of Jail’, ‘There's A Little Box Of Pine On The 7:29’ (all concerning society’s debt being repaid by the convicted), ‘A Drunkard's Child’ (tragedy brought about by “the demon rum”), ‘Don't Make Me Go To Bed And I'll Be Good’, ‘Put My Little Shoes Away’ (two tales of the Grim Reaper meeting youngsters), ‘Nobody's Child’ (the distress felt by a blind orphan). Indeed, the title of ‘There’s A Little Box Of Pine On The 7.29’ is sadness personified.
‘When Tragedy Struck’ is an album of sheer beauty, a stark and brooding opus, everything that is great about country music. “All the ingredients necessary to melt the hearts of listeners are included in this collection of songs of grief, that most private emotion” the sleeve triumphantly reported, “and singing these sings is s religion with Hank Snow.”
Truly righteous.
1 The Letter Edged In Black, 3:20 (Roy Carter) 2 Old Shep, 3:37 (Red Foley) 3 The Prisoner's Prayer, 3:40 (Ted Daffan, Donald Nash) 4 A Drunkard's Child, 3:56 (Andrew Jenkins, Jimmie Rodgers) 5 Don't Make Me Go To Bed And I'll Be Good (Hugh Cross) 6 The Convict And The Rose, 3:01 (Betty Chapin, Robert King) 7 Put My Little Shoes Away (Traditional/Public Domain) 8 Little Buddy, 3:15 (Hank Snow) 9 There's A Little Box Of Pine On The 7:29 (George "Funky" Brown Ettinger De Dette Lee) 10 Nobody's Child, 3:09 (Cy Coben, Nel Foree) 11 I'm Here To Get My Baby Out Of Jail (Harty Taylor, Karl Davis)
