Hank Williams, Jr.’s Greatest Hits, Vol.1

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This is Hank Jr. in his late-’70s/early-’80s version, that brief moment after he’d discovered a sound and persona that wasn’t just inherited but before he devolved into a good-old-boy caricature. Not that Bocephus isn’t engaging in some posturing here already–the preposterous “Texas Women,” for example, could stand unaltered as a Saturday Night Live parody of redneck lechery. More often, though, the 10 hit singles on this disc combine a low-key brand of Southern rock boogie with plenty of twang to fashion a wholly distinctive take on country tradition. Williams’s work here is always indelible, and though he likes to drop his daddy’s name a bit too often, it’s hard to argue with introspective numbers like “All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled
- Neil Young – Harvest Moon Brazil Import

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CD > POPULAR MUSIC > ROCKWhen Neil Young seems about to zig, he zags. Two years after 1990′s loud Ragged Glory, he retreats to an old world of steel guitars, gentle folk melodies, and pristine country choruses. (That’s Linda Ronstadt, who helped make 1972′s Harvest a hit album, singing backup on the follow-up.) Young name-drops Hank Williams, Jimi Hendrix, and his old dog, King, in rich reminiscences about the musical ride he and his fans have shared since the late ’60s. The album, as Young sings in “One of These Days,” is “a long letter to all the good friends I’ve known.” –Steve Knopper
