HANK SASAKI
Heartbreak and Tears
Deep Water – Before My Time – Lost &
Lonely – Lonesome 77203 – 1953 – My Sweet Love Ain’t Around – You Don’t
Have Very Far To Go – Stories In A Tear – Here I Am Drunk Again –
Tomorrow Never Comes – Soft Rain – My Old Kentucky I Miss You Tonight –
Adios Sayonara – Kimino Hitomino Nakani
Lonely – Lonesome 77203 – 1953 – My Sweet Love Ain’t Around – You Don’t
Have Very Far To Go – Stories In A Tear – Here I Am Drunk Again –
Tomorrow Never Comes – Soft Rain – My Old Kentucky I Miss You Tonight –
Adios Sayonara – Kimino Hitomino Nakani
Hank Sasaki began his romance with country music while
still a young boy growing up in Japan. His first idol being Hank
Williams, Sr. Today he makes his home near Nashville, and still writes
and sings classic and traditional country music. He came to our
festival in LeMars, Iowa, in 2014 to be inducted into America’s Old Time
Country Music Hall of Fame, and those that got to see him perform
continue to tell me today what a treat it was to hear this very unique
and distinguished voice singing their favorite classic country songs.
The opening song on this CD “Deep Water” uses an incredibly gifted Dobro
player and a fiddler too. Both of these instruments have nearly
evaporated from today’s top-40 country music, making it very much a
non-country musical effort. Hank’s efforts however are the real-deal.
He has a very distinguished voice, very identifiable the instant you
hear it, also very unlike today’s top-40 so-called country music artists
who all sound alike. Hank also has that ‘touch’ of real country that
brings him to dedicate his work to loved ones. He doesn’t pause a
moment in making it clear he still has the passion for real country
music, both singing and songwriting. He wrote six of the songs on this
CD, and they hold up really well besides the classic hits he also
recorded. As I write this, on the Internet is a demonstration of what
songwriters in Nashville are doing these days. On this album Hank wrote
six very different songs, all with different melodies, tempo, timing,
chords, everything, six very different songs. The Internet
demonstration is how a writer used the same melody, the same key, the
same backing tracks for six songs with only different words for six
different artists. Wow, that isn’t what Hank Sasaki is about that’s for
sure. This is a very well produced album, with some of that great Hank
Williams backing sound. “My Sweet Love Ain’t Around” is especially
good. The steel is especially good on this Hank Williams original. I’m
forwarding this CD to the Rural Roots Music Commission, see if they
like it as much as I do. Good CD completely well done, the mix is
excellent, Hank’s voice is right out front where it needs to be, not
buried in the mix. Good ‘country’ musicians backing all the way
through, though we do not know who they are. This one gets five stars.
still a young boy growing up in Japan. His first idol being Hank
Williams, Sr. Today he makes his home near Nashville, and still writes
and sings classic and traditional country music. He came to our
festival in LeMars, Iowa, in 2014 to be inducted into America’s Old Time
Country Music Hall of Fame, and those that got to see him perform
continue to tell me today what a treat it was to hear this very unique
and distinguished voice singing their favorite classic country songs.
The opening song on this CD “Deep Water” uses an incredibly gifted Dobro
player and a fiddler too. Both of these instruments have nearly
evaporated from today’s top-40 country music, making it very much a
non-country musical effort. Hank’s efforts however are the real-deal.
He has a very distinguished voice, very identifiable the instant you
hear it, also very unlike today’s top-40 so-called country music artists
who all sound alike. Hank also has that ‘touch’ of real country that
brings him to dedicate his work to loved ones. He doesn’t pause a
moment in making it clear he still has the passion for real country
music, both singing and songwriting. He wrote six of the songs on this
CD, and they hold up really well besides the classic hits he also
recorded. As I write this, on the Internet is a demonstration of what
songwriters in Nashville are doing these days. On this album Hank wrote
six very different songs, all with different melodies, tempo, timing,
chords, everything, six very different songs. The Internet
demonstration is how a writer used the same melody, the same key, the
same backing tracks for six songs with only different words for six
different artists. Wow, that isn’t what Hank Sasaki is about that’s for
sure. This is a very well produced album, with some of that great Hank
Williams backing sound. “My Sweet Love Ain’t Around” is especially
good. The steel is especially good on this Hank Williams original. I’m
forwarding this CD to the Rural Roots Music Commission, see if they
like it as much as I do. Good CD completely well done, the mix is
excellent, Hank’s voice is right out front where it needs to be, not
buried in the mix. Good ‘country’ musicians backing all the way
through, though we do not know who they are. This one gets five stars.
REVIEW BY BOB EVERHART – www.ntcma.net
for Country Music News International Magazine