Turn Back The Years: The Essential Hank Williams Collection CD

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.

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.

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.

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-