TIE FOR #11 - "THE LOST NOTEBOOKS OF HANK WILLIAMS"

I usually don't include compilation albums on my year-end best-ofs, but I'll make an exception for The Lost Notebooks Of Hank Williams. The album started out as a Bob Dylan project: he was given some "lost" notebooks with lyrics that Hank Williams never put to music.  Bob ended up doing one song, "The Love That Faded," which is excellent.

So, it went from being a Bob album to a tribute of sorts... with a number of big name artists creating new songs out of Williams lyrics.  The lineup features Alan Jackson, Norah Jones, Jack White, Lucinda Williams, Vince Gill with Rodney Crowell, Patty Loveless, Levon Helm, Holly Williams (with her father, Hank Williams Jr. on backing vocals), Jakob Dylan, Sheryl Crow and Merle Haggard.

I imagine that these days, people are more likely to download individual tracks rather than buy compilations.  In this case, it's worth it to pick up the whole thing.  First of all, the entire album is great.  Rock fans may not be hip to, say, Alan Jackson, but his song "You've Been Lonesome Too" is excellent. On the flipside, mainstream country fans may not be too interested in (Nashville resident) Jack White.  But his song "You Know That I Know" is also amazing. Hank's granddaughter Holly has a great voice... and hearing Hank Jr.'s backing vocals almost made me forget about his insane comments on Fox News about The President.

Besides all of that, the CD includes extensive liner notes about Hank, and gives the history of the notebooks that provided the source material for the record.

Hank Williams is surely one of the greatest songwriters of all time, in any genre. This album gives us some of his lost lyrics, which is a gift.  And if the inclusion of any of these artists turns their fanbases on to Hank's music, that's an even greater one.  So big props to producer Mary Martin: I'm sure this was a really long project, but I'm glad it's out.

COOL NEW MUSIC: BAUHAUS, KATHLEEN EDWARDS, BLACK CROWES, RAKIM AND ALAN JACKSON

I bought one song each from all of the above. Maybe I'll go back and buy the rest of the albums later. In the $14.99 CD era before downloads, I might not have tried any of these albums. Anyway, here's my lowdown:

Bauhaus release their final album today, called Go Away White, a great title for the curtain call by this seminal goth band. I remember in one of the greatest comic books of all time, Sandman, the title character went from being all black to all white by the end of the comic's run. I saw Bauhaus on their reunion tour a few years back. I was never an expert on the band, but I had a respect for them. And they were great. I saw them again a few summers ago, opening for Nine Inch Nails at the most ungothly of venues, Jones Beach. But still, they were great. Apparently during the recording of this album, "an incident" occured, ensuring that the band will never work together again. Wow. Anyway, judging by "International Bulletproof Talent," they're taking thier final bow on a pretty cool note.

Today The Black Crowes release thier first album since reuniting a few years back, Warpaint. Like Maxim magazine, I have only heard "Goodbye Daughters Of The Revolution," and unlike Maxim, I'm not going to pretend I heard anything else. This is a pretty groovy song. I'm not a hardcore Black Crowes fan, but I enjoy lots of thier songs, and this is a good one.

Kathleen Edwards' "Oil Man's War," from her new one, Asking For Flowers, appeals to me on its title alone. On her last album, Back To Me, I really loved two songs (the title track and "In State"), but not the rest of the album. This is a pretty cool song, though, so I'll have to investigate the album further.

Rakim's "Love 4 Sale" is from a new collection called The Archive: Live, Lost & Found. He's one of the best MCs of all time, and it's too bad that he can't seem to get his career back on track. At one point, he was signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records, but got dropped before he released anything. As he proved on last year's track "Classic (Better Than I've Ever Been)" remix (produced by DJ Premier and also featuring Kanye West, Nas and KRS-One), he smokes pretty much any MC who is considered hot these days. Anyway, this is a pretty cool track.

Alan Jackson's "Small Town Southern Man" is from A-Jax's new album, out today, called Good Time. It's actually his first album where he wrote all the songs himself. I know he's lumped in with all of the "hat acts," many of whom I'm indifferent to. I don't have his albums, but I used to work in a record store and we played him sometimes, and I found myself liking his music. This is actually the record I'm most likely to pick up of this batch.