Hank Williams Album: “American Legends: Best of the Early Years”

Description :

Compilation producers: Howard Smiley, Bill Crowley. <p>As one might easily guess from looking at their covers, Laserlight Records' AMERICAN LEGENDS discs feature those artists honored by the U.S. Postal Service. Volume 18 in the series pays tribute to Hank Williams Sr., arguably country music's greatest songwriter and certainly the biggest country star of his era. Between 1947 and 1953--the year of his untimely death--Williams placed 35 songs in the country Top 10, many of which he wrote himself. <p>Hank Williams appears on only four of the thirteen recordings included on AMERICAN LEGENDS. The other nine tracks are songs written by and popularized by Williams but performed here by other artists. West Coast honky-tonk legend Rose Maddox sings three Williams songs, and Molly O'Day gives three others an Appalachian flavor. Bluegrass legends the Osborne Brothers add "My Heart Would Know" and "My Sweet Love Ain't Around." While there's nothing wrong with these recordings per se, they don't meet the high standard set by Williams' original recordings. Furthermore, several of these songs are definitely second-tier songwriting efforts. Accordingly, AMERICAN LEGENDS is a nice, though not exemplary, set. Those seeking Williams' original classic recordings should consider either 20 GREATEST HITS or 40 GREATEST HITS.

Although I don't have this exact CD, I'd like to tell you that although the price of the disc makes it worth it for 11 early tracks, but a comprehensive collection of Greatest Hits or for a generous overview of his early career ASV's "Lovesick Blues" CD is recommended for those who do not have a boxed set, but would like an overview of his early years (contains this collection and about 14 more songs on 1 CD, imported from the UK) but I'd go for a greatest hits package such as "20 Greatest Hits" or "40 Greatest Hits" to start with instead and then buy a boxed set which is what I exactly did.