Bob and Jack-Norah and Willie

Bob Dylan has acquired the unfinished songs that were in Hank Williams briefcase when he died and has enlisted some friends to finish and record the songs for a project.

Jack White recorded at Blackbird Studios in Nashville along with engineer Joe Chiccarelli, Dominic Suchyta on upright bass, Carla Azar (Autolux) on drums, Donny Herron (Bob Dylan, BR549) on 8-string guitar and Dean Fertita (Raconteurs, Waxwings) on acoustic guitar. “We did the session in one long day,” Suchyta says of the secret taping, “live in a circle with some mics around—much like Hank would have.”

They recorded an unfinished Williams song called “You Know That I Know.” “No one has heard it as it was a Hank Williams lyric sheet that Jack put to music and edited a bit,” says Suchyta. “Jack was sent most of or all of the unfinished tunes and picked this one to finish. We listened to quite a bit of Hank while I was down there and sat around the two of us playing our favorite Hank tunes, but the song was done when I got there. I think Jack just ingested a bunch of Hank Williams and this is what came out of him.”

The entire participant list is still under wraps as is the project.