Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain

For two or three decades a small stack of my great-grandfather's old 78 records sat in a trunk among old newspapers and a decaying blanket. I had never paid those post-war country records any mind, and then one day, out of curiosity, I took them into the house, cleaned them in the sink with tap water and a microfiber towel, and let them dry in the dish rack. 

The next day I played some of the records only to discover that although I hardly knew my great-grandfather, we had very similar taste in music. I remember the moment the needle met the groove on Roy Acuff's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain." My jaw dropped, for I had always thought the song was first recorded by Willie Nelson at Autumn Sound Studio in Garland, Texas, in 1975. That day of listening to those crackling old records turned my curiosity into a passion.

Here is another version of "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," sung by none other than the Lovesick Blues Boy, Hank Williams.