HANK WILLIAMS
The Legend Begins:
    Rare and Unreleased Recordings
TimeLife 26414D

www.timelife.com/
www.hankwilliams.com/
 

A terrific set of hard-to-find, material from one of the undisputed masters of the early days of country music. The first two discs offer clear remasterings of his eight previously out-of-print 15-minute “Health and Happiness Show” radio transcriptions – each with congenial talk, a Hank hit, gospel, and a fiddle breakdown – done in 1949 (three years before his “Mother’s Best” transcriptions, which I prefer). The high-spirited syndicated shows were taped on two Saturday sessions with his ace Drifting Cowboys. Miss Audrey, his assertive first wife, tagged along on the first. Hank’s songs such as “You’re Gonna Change” and “Mind Your Own Business” imply that her off-key singing was the least of their marriage woes.

Disc 3’s dynamite is his heretofore unreleased home recordings taken from scratchy acetates he made as a teenager. They include rowdy double-entendre country blues “Fan It” and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (both with accordion), Roy Acuff and Bob Wills hits and “Greenback Dollar.” Even then, the “Lovesick Blues” man’s delivery was electrifying. A terrific find for true fans and completists. — Bruce Sylvester