There are a few singers – very few singers – that can make any song sound good, whether it is a lyrical masterpiece or a piece of hack boilerplate. Hank’s warm, friendly voice made everything sound good. Not every song he ever recorded was great or even good, but Hank made everything sound good. It takes a truly great artist to be able to do that.

I saw Hank about two years before he died. At that time he was still playing his own lead guitar (he was a very good, nearly great, picker) and he was still in good voice. In a sense, Hank Thompson was the George Strait of his day making decades of good records. In fact, George Strait made one of his few guest appearences (and perhaps his first) on a Hank THompson album