Reviewed by Peter Timmis

When country legend Williams died at the tragically young age of 29 he left behind several notebooks of unfinished songs which, for years, languished in the vaults of various record companies before finally coming into the possession of long-time fan, Bob Dylan. Instead of recording the unfinished works himself, he chose one and passed on the others to recording artists who he felt would offer suitable interpretations. Released on Dylan's own Egyptian label 'The Lost Notebooks. . .' features 12 tracks by some well known country music stars as well as a couple of more contemporary artists. Norah Jones' acoustic "How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart?" is sweet and tender with a simply gorgeous vocal that could just be the best track she's recorded in years while Jack White proves himself an accomplished country singer with a superbly cheeky delivery on "You Know That I Know". Dylan's own contribution to the album "The Love That Faded" is as brilliantly quirky as you'd expect and features some great steel guitar work from Donnie Herron. Less successful though is "I'm So Happy I Found You" performed by Lucinda Williams which has a clunky melody that soon begins to grate, but this is a minor irritation on an album that features a track as good as Merle Haggard's powerfully raw "The Sermon On The Mount" which is worth the price of the album by itself. While not an essential purchase, 'The Lost Notebooks. . .' is good enough to please Hank's fans as well as lovers of country music in general.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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