Harmony-rich BlackHawk was born when former Outlaws' vocalist Henry Paul teamed up with the songwriting duo of Van Stephenson and Dave Robbins. This collection captures highlights from their celebrated 1994-2000 tenure at Arista.
The six tracks overlapping this set and 2000's Greatest Hits are among their biggest hits, like the toe-tappers "Every Once In A While" and "There You Have It," as well as the ballad "Postmarked Birmingham," which features Paul's most affecting vocal performance. Not included here (but found on Greatest Hits) are the midtempo, top-ten-charting "I Sure Can Smell The Rain" and "Down In Flames."
The rest of Platinum & Gold is made up of three catchy singles that charted outside the top twenty "Hole In My Heart," "Your Own Little Corner Of My Heart," and "King Of The World," plus three uptempo album tracks ("When I Find It I'll Know It," "Stepping Stones," Let 'Em Whirl"). None of these album tracks compare to their bluegrass drenched cover of the Andrew Gold hit "Lonely Boy," which unfortunately remains unanthologized.
If you are looking for an economical way to collect all of the BlackHawk singles, I suggest you get both this set and Greatest Hits. If you only want/can afford one retrospective, however, the 15-track Greatest Hits is strongly preferred.
