Jett Williams meets Dad via recordings

(11-07) 04:00 PST Nashville, Tenn. --

Jett Williams never met her father, Hank Williams Sr., who died five days before she was born in 1953.

But she's come to learn more about him from 143 never-released recordings he did for a radio program in 1951.

The recordings were retrieved from a trash bin and ended up part of the Williams estate. They're being released over the next three years (with the first batch hitting stores last week).

"It's very intimate," Jett Williams, a country singer, said. "It's like he came over to your house and he's saying, 'Let me tell you about this song I just wrote.'

"It's interesting because it's live, and you hear him make a mistake or the band make a mistake and you get to hear how he handles it. You hear him tell jokes and how quick his wit is."

Born to Bobbie Jett, Williams' girlfriend between his marriages, Jett Williams didn't have a clue her father was Hank Williams until her 21st birthday. It took her years of legal action to receive recognition and a share of his estate.

The recordings capture him joking and telling stories between songs, such as "Hey, Good Lookin' " or "On Top of Old Smoky" and "I'll Fly Away."

"This is a piece of American apple pie right here," she said. "You've got my dad talking about current affairs, the president, things like that."

Williams and his Drifting Cowboys Band made the recordings for the radio station WSM-AM in Nashville.

They were recorded on acetate discs and pitched in the trash when the station moved in the 1960s. An employee salvaged them and later turned them over to Jett Williams.