Turn Back The Years: The Essential Hank

Personnel: Hank Williams; Don Helms, Jerry Rivers, Jimmy Day, Red Foley, Audrey Williams, Big Bill Lister, Cedric Rainwater, Sammy Pruett, Tommy Bishop, Lum York, Red Todd, Joe Pennington, Sonny Norred. Recording information: 1947 - 1951. While there are dozens of Hank Williams anthologies on the market, only a handful of these approach the quality andconsistency of 2005's TURN BACK THE YEARS: THE ESSENTIAL HANK WILLIAMS COLLECTION. Rather than following a strictly chronological order, this Mercury Nashville three-disc set arranges its 60 tunes into thematic CDs that cover the range of the country legend's brief recording career, from 1946 to 1952. The first discfocuses on the freewheeling, hard-drinking side of Williams, presenting tunes such as the rollicking "Move It on Over, " the caddish "Hey, Good Lookin', " and therambling "Lost Highway. " While the second disc features songs of heartbreak and loneliness (the timeless tale of infidelity "Your Cheatin' Heart" and the woe-is-me classic "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"), the third disc sets its sights on spiritual tunes both redemptive ("I Saw the Light") and bleak ("Angel of Death"). Every song on TURN BACK THE YEARS showcases Williams's charismatic vocals and spare, twangy arrangements, reinforcing exactly why he is revered as the reigning country icon of the first half of the 20th century. Reviews: Entertainment Weekly (No. 845, p. 75) - ". . . [T]his sequencing might make serious students hear new things in each catch-and-moan bray of misery--like the pre-Elvis roots of rock & roll. " - Grade: A-

Track Listing

• Disc 1
• • 1 honky tonkin'
  • 2 rockin' chair money
  • 3 i'm a long gone daddy
  • 4 i've been down that road before
  • 5 moanin' the blues
  • 6 (i heard that) lonesome whistle
  • 7 rootie tootie
  • 8 you better keep it on your mind
  • 9 settin' the woods on fire
  • 10 wearin' out your walkin' shoes
  • 11 too many parties and too many pals
  • 12 ramblin' man
  • 13 tennessee border
  • 14 howlin' at the moon
  • 15 move it on over
  • 16 hey, good lookin'
  • 17 leave me alone with the blues
  • 18 lost highway
  • 19 there's a tear in my beer
  • 20 honky tonk blues
• Disc 2
• • 1 lovesick blues
  • 2 wedding bells
  • 3 a mansion on the hill
  • 4 i'm free at last
  • 5 my love for you (has turned to hate)
  • 6 your cheatin' heart
  • 7 first year blues
  • 8 on the banks of the old pontchartrain
  • 9 may you never be alone
  • 10 a house without love
  • 11 they'll never take her love from me
  • 12 i'm so lonesome i could cry
  • 13 let's turn back the years
  • 14 i'm so tired of it all
  • 15 cold, cold heart
  • 16 weary blues from waiting
  • 17 you win again
  • 18 fool about you
  • 19 please make up your mind
  • 20 i can't escape from you
• Disc 3
• • 1 i saw the light
  • 2 thy burderns are greater than mine
  • 3 calling you
  • 4 wealth won't save your soul
  • 5 the pale horse and his rider
  • 6 beyond the sunset
  • 7 are you walkin' and a talkin' for the lo
  • 8 let the spirit descend
  • 9 the battle of armageddon
  • 10 alone and forsaken
  • 11 drifting too far from the shore
  • 12 a house of gold
  • 13 where the soul of man never dies
  • 14 how can you refuse him now?
  • 15 a tramp on the street
  • 16 lost on the river
  • 17 when god dips his love in my heart
  • 18 'neath a cold gray tomb of stone
  • 19 i'll have a new body (i'll have a new li
  • 20 angel of death