Consumer Guide Album

Hank Williams: Lovesick Blues: August 1947-December 1948 [Polydor, 1985]
The second installment of a worthy project that better not get stalled in corporate machinations, these 21 tracks represent Williams' entire chronological unoverdubbed studio output from the period plus four nonsession recordings, three of them "sacred." I don't believe in anybody's uninterrupted genius, but most of the 18 tracks not on Williams' 40 Greatest Hits range from impressive to stunning. "Honky Tonkin'" and "I'll Be a Bachelor 'Til I Die" and "I'm a Long Gone Daddy" and "The Blues Come Around" would be enough to establish Williams as a hot songwriter. Add such covers as "I'm Satisfied With You" and "Rootie Tootie" and "I Wish I Had a Nickel" and you have the best country album released in 1985. A-