Album Review: The Lost Notebook of Hank Williams by Various Artists

The story goes that when Hank Williams died he left behind a notebook full of partially written songs (lyrics with no music is the impression I get). This was handed over to Bob Dylan back in 2002 and he was asked to finish them. He partnered up with some other artists and together they have put together a collection of 12 songs.

It's a fun little album and some of the songs are done quite well, but I don't care for stuff like this much. Problem is when you invoke the name of Hank Williams it is hard to forget it and so if you're like me you spend the entire 12 tracks thinking about what a better singer Hank was than anyone who is trying on this album to sing his lyrics. That's the problem I always run into with albums like this.

Still they have done a nice job of bringing these left behind lyrics to life. My favorite approach on this album was the one taken by Jakob Dylan who modernized the song so that you forget the ghost of Williams standing there and can simply enjoy the simple song.

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 2 out of 5 stars for Not Bad.