"I've Been Down That Road Before" is a talking blues song by

Hank Williams Hank Williams (born Hiram Williams; September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he reco ...

. It was released by

MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...

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." He recorded it in Nashville on June 1, 1951 with Fred Rose producing and backing by

Jerry Rivers Jerry Rivers (August 25, 1928 – October 4, 1996) was an American fiddle player. Biography Jerry Rivers was born in Miami, Florida. He played fiddle with the Drifting Cowboys, a band who will be forever associated with their "frontman", the leg ...

(fiddle), Don Helms (steel guitar), Sammy Pruett (electric guitar),

Jack Shook Jack Shook (born Loren Shook; September 11, 1910 – September 23, 1986) was an American guitarist and a Grand Ole Opry star. He was a native of Decatur, Illinois. He was raised in Kansas and Missouri. He started at WSM, Nashville as a staff musi ...

(rhythm guitar), Ernie Newton or "Cedric Rainwater", aka Howard Watts (bass), and possibly

Owen Bradley William Owen Bradley (October 21, 1915 – January 7, 1998) was an American musician and record producer who, along with Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson, Bill Porter, and Don Law, was one of the chief architects of the 1950s and 1960s Nashville sou ...

(organ).

References

Hank Williams songs 1951 songs Songs about roads Song recordings produced by Fred Rose (songwriter) Songs written by Hank Williams MGM Records singles {{1950s-country-song-stub