There’s country singers, there’s folk singers, there’s even some country folk singers, but there’s only one Hank Williams. For folk and country music I would typically turn the station so I wouldn’t have to suffer through the sad, downtrodden song but when it’s Hank Williams I will actually listen to him sing. The man had a solid voice that allowed him to do that wavering sound in his songs as well as go up and down on the pitch range. He’s one of those artists that when you have heard his voice a few times you will recognize it again even if you don’t like his songs. Which it’s hard not to at least to get a kick out of some of his songs.

Such songs like Lovesick Blues is one of those songs that has the high pitch that is the hallmark for old time country music and it’s the reason why after you hear it you will be wanting to sing along with Hank Williams as he does that high pitch vocals. Now not all songs are of the sad, lovesick lyrics and meaning, there are others like I’m a Long Gone Daddy that is one that’s not quite upbeat but it’s not about how the woman left him, it’s actually about him leaving. Still, there are some tempos with some of the songs that are just downright knee slapping fun like Happy Rovin Cowboy and Sally Goodin.

The Legend Begins Rare and Unreleased Recordings consists of 3 CD’s with 61 songs that were recorded in a studio that yes has an announcer talking in the background at the start of some songs. This actually works well with the songs because it makes them sound more like a local group that are just sitting outside singing and they are talking to the people listening. It’s a wholesome feeling that these songs produce and it’s a fun feeling, even though they are so hard core with the twang, guitar picking, high pitch to low pitch country folk as you can get, the songs are good. Sitting here writing this I thought I would have more negative to say about this CD set other than it just being country folk music, but the only real negative that is on here is that there is a lot of repeating of the same songs on here. Sally Goodin was played 4 times on CD 1, another 4 times on CD 2, and though the song is short it was used a lot on the one CD so when I sat and listened to the whole thing at one time I wasn’t too thrilled with hearing it for the fourth time. However, it’s not that they did it because they kept wanting to play the song during recording, from what I understand Hank Williams recorded this on for the radio show so the songs where repeated they where only meant to be heard on separate days. So, it’s not that bad of a thing but when listening to the whole CD in one sitting, well some songs could be skipped over. Otherwise, this was a good set of songs, they have some good sounds, decent beats, and that wonderful twang of down home old timey county folk music.