"My Sweet Love Ain't Around" was recorded at Castle Studio in Nashville with Fred Rose producing and backing from Jerry Byrd (steel guitar), Robert "Chubby" Wise (fiddle), Zeke Turner (lead guitar), probably Louis Innis (bass) and either Owen Bradley or Rose on piano.
[1] After the underwhelming performance of "On the Banks of the Old Ponchartrain," "My Sweet Love Ain't Around" returned to the harder sound that had made "Move It On Over" a #4 hit the year before.
With Jerry Byrd's steel guitar mimicking a train whistle and William's lazy, blues-drenched vocal, the song may have been too raw for country audiences at the time, which may explain why the single failed to chart.
As biographer Colin Escott notes, "At this point, Hank was no more than a sidebar to Fred Rose's activities and was far from MGM's best-selling artist.
"[2] By October 1947, MGM had snagged the enormously popular Bob Wills from Columbia and enjoyed its first big hit with "Life Gits Tee-Jus, Don't It" by singer Carson Robison.