Hank Williams is........LUKE THE DRIFTER

specifically, how did this session come to be?

I think it pretty simply grew out of Hank's desire to record more gospel songs, but I could be wrong on that. I like a lot of his Luke The Drifter stuff.

yeah, but listening to it, it isn't really gospel, at least not in a "I Saw the Light" kinda way...it's all story songs

The funeral narrative song he does is so insane.

I have a friend who started a band called Drifting Luke in hommage to this alter-ego of Hank.

what was that hank williams track, recorded under a pseudonym, that was all about Stalin?

"Me and Stalin Down by the Schoolyard"?

Now look here Joe, quit acting smart
Stop being that old brazen sort
Don't you go sellin' this country short
No, no Joe

Just because you think you've found
The system that we know ain't sound
Don't you go throwin' your weight around
No, no Joe

'Cause the Kaiser tried it and Hitler tried it
Mussolini tried it, too
Now they're all sittin' around a fire and did you know something?
They're saving a place for you

Now Joe you ought to get it clear
You can't push folks around with fear
'Cause we don't scare easy over here
No, no Joe

What makes you do the things you do
You gettin' folks mad at you
Don't bite off more'n you can chew
No, no Joe

'Cause you want a scrap that can't win
You don't know what you're getting in
Don't go around leading with your chin
No, No Joe

Now you got tanks, some fair size tanks
But you're acting like a clown
'Cause man we've got yanks, a mess of yanks
And you might get caught with your tanks down

Don't go throwin' out your chest
You'll pop the buttons off your vest
You're playing with a hornets' nest
No, no Joe

You know, you think you're somebody we should dread
Just because you're seein' red
You better get that foolishness out of your head
No, no Joe

And you might be itchin' for a fight
Quit braggin' about how your bear can bite
'Cause you're sitting on a keg of dynamite
No, no Joe

apparently recorded under Luke The Drifter.. boy am I forgetful.

according to the liner notes from the wonderful new Hank boxset Turn back the Years, the Luke the drifter pseudonym was enforced by the record company on account of the fact that they didn't want Hank's fans to confuse his pop songs with the much more stark Hank on Luke the drifter songs

There may be some errors here, but here's the lyrics to "The Funeral". Not for the faint hearted . . .

Recorded by Hank Williams, Sr.
Writer: Unknown (Not Fred Rose or Hank Williams)

I was walking in Savannah past a church decayed and dim,
When slowly through the window came a plaintive funeral hymn.
My sympathy awakened and a wonder quickly grew,
Til I found myself environed in a little colored pew.

Out front a colored couple sat in sorrow nearly wild.
On the altar was a casket, and in the casket was a child.
I could picture him while living, curly hair protruding lips,
I'd seen perhaps a thousand in my hurried southern trips.

Then rose a sad, old colored preacher from his little wooden desk,
With a manner sort of awkward and countenance grotesque.
The simplicity and shrewdness in his Ethiopian face
Showed the wisdom and the ignorance of a crushed, undying race.

And he said, "Now don't be weepin' for this pretty bit of clay,
For the little boy who lived there has done gone and run away.
He was doing very finely and he 'ppreciates your love,
But his sho-'nough father wanted him in the big house up above.

The Lord didn't give you that baby, by no hundred thousand miles,
He just think you need some sunshine and He lent it for a while.
And He let you keep and love him til your hearts were bigger grown,
And these silver tears you're shedding now, are just interest on the loan.

Just think my poor dear mourners creeping long on sorrow’s way,
What a blessed picnic this here baby got today.
Your good fathers and good mothers crowd the little fella round,
In the angels'tender garden of the big plantation ground.

And his eyes they brightly sparkle at the pretty things he view
But a tear came and he whispered, "I want my parents too".
Then the angel's chief musicians teach that little boy a song,
Says if only they be faithful, they'll soon be comin' 'long.

And so my poor dear mourners, let your hearts with Jesus rest,
And don't go to criticizn' the One what knows the best.
He has give us many comforts He's got the right to take away
To the Lord be praised in glory, now and ever, let us pray.”

The "heaven is a plantation" image = yikes

"Hippie Boy" by the Flying Burrito Brothers is an homage to that song, I believe.

This was the first Hank Williams CD I ever bought. Blew my 17-yr-old mind and completely ruined the rest of his catalogue for me. When my grandmother died a year later, and I got all her records, this was among them. It was a weird moment.