There are three Hanks everyone thinks of when they think of country music–and they’re all Williamses.

The fourth, of course, was Hank Thompson, whose Brazos Valley Boys burned up the airwaves in the ’50s–delivering, among other things, a live LP from the Nugget in Las Vegas; the equally ebullient 1959 LP “Songs for Rounders”; a genuine guitar hero in Merle Travis; and one of the greatest bar songs ever, “A Six Pack to Go.”

Somewhere in my garage, I have a cassette tape with a bootleg of John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X covering “A Six Pack to Go”–and despite the fact that I can’t lay my hands on it, I take great comfort in knowing it’s around.

Hank Thompson made a bit of a comeback a few years ago on Hightone Records–but he died last night of lung cancer at age 82, according to Nashville TV and his own website.

You can say what you want about Hank Williams, Sr.–but I’ll have to go with Hank Thompson at least 45 percent of the time.

Alongside of Thompson’s bounce–his cheering, booming baritone, his boulevardier’s wit, and Merle Travis’s expert picking–Williams comes off sounding like a vampire: like Peter Murphy. Thompson? Love and Rockets.

(And yes, put them together and you get Bauhaus–in a 1950s country music context. Make sense? No, it doesn’t.)

Here’s to you, Hank Thompson. Maybe Mr. Ziegler can find us an MP3?

Tags: " Merle Travis, "A Six Pack to Go, "Songs for Rounders, Bauhaus, California, Exene Cervenka, Hank Thompson, Hank Thompson and His Brazos Valley Boys, Hank Williams, John Doe, Las Vegas, Long Beach, Love and Rockets, Peter Murphy, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas, X