Turn Back The Years: The Essential Hank Williams Collection [Box] [Remaster]

Performer: Hank Williams
Producer: Fred Rose; Colin Escott (Compilation)
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Hank Williams; Don Helms, Jerry Rivers, Jimmy Day, Red Foley, Audrey Williams, Big Bill Lister, Cedric Rainwater, Samuel K. "Sammy" Pruett, Tommy Bishop, Lum York, Red Todd, Joe Pennington, Sonny Norred. While there are dozens of Hank Williams anthologies on the market, only a handful of these approach the quality and consistency 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 disc focuses on the freewheeling, hard-drinking side of Williams, presenting tunes such as the rollicking "Move It on Over," the caddish "Hey, Good Lookin'," and the rambling "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.

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-

The Robert Johnson of country, Hank Williams was a troubled visionary who hung around just long enough to change the face of American music forever. He added electric instruments and touches of Western swing and proto-rockabilly to the post-hillbilly sound of his idol Roy Acuff, writing a wealth of unforgettable tunes along the way. In the late 1940s and early '50s, Williams rose to fame with a series of these chart-topping hits, including "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and "Hey, Good Lookin'." Though Williams' hard living caught up with him in 1953, his legacy lives on in his timeless songs and the legions of musicians he inspired.

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