I've Been Down That Road Before

"I've Been Down That Road Before"
Single by Hank Williams (aka "Luke the Drifter")
A-side"I Dreamed About Mama Last Night"
PublishedJuly 9, 1951 (1951-07-09) Acuff-Rose Publications[1]
Released1951
RecordedJune 1, 1951[2]
StudioCastle Studio, Nashville
GenreCountry, Gospel
Length2:54
LabelMGM 11017
Songwriter(s)Hank Williams
Producer(s)Fred Rose
Hank Williams (aka "Luke the Drifter") singles chronology
"Just Waitin'"
(1951) 		"I've Been Down That Road Before"
(1951) 		"Ramblin' Man"
(1951)

"I've Been Down That Road Before" is a talking blues song by Hank Williams. It was released by MGM Records under the name "Luke the Drifter", which was a pseudonym for Hank's recitations. It was another dose of the sage advice that Luke the Drifter seemed endlessly capable of dispensing - and Hank Williams seemed just as capable of ignoring. Biographer Colin Escott calls it "perhaps the most directly biographical song he ever wrote, and leaves us guessing at the incidents that inspired it."[3] He recorded it in Nashville on June 1, 1951 with Fred Rose producing and backing by Jerry Rivers (fiddle), Don Helms (steel guitar), Sammy Pruett (electric guitar), Jack Shook (rhythm guitar), Ernie Newton or "Cedric Rainwater", aka Howard Watts (bass), and possibly Owen Bradley (organ).[4]

  1. ^ "U.S. Copyright Office Virtual Card Catalog 1946-1954". vcc.copyright.gov. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  2. ^ "Hank Williams 78rpm Issues". jazzdiscography.com. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  3. ^ Escott, Colin (2004). Hank Williams: The Biography. Back Bay. p. 175. ISBN 0-316-73497-7.
  4. ^ Escott, Colin (2004). Hank Williams: The Biography. Back Bay. p. 345. ISBN 0-316-73497-7.