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http://www.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/33d70c1805c81cbb9cf04ccc4fc9b275fa863db8.jpg The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams

Various Artists

The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams

Egyptian/CMF/Columbia
Rolling Stone: star rating
Community: star rating
5 3.5 0
October 4, 2011

Click to listen to Jack White's 'You Know That I Know'

Using Hank Williams' lyrics notebooks to imagine songs he never finished, The Lost Notebooks turns a vaguely necrophiliac idea into a startling reincarnation. Bob Dylan's mariachi waltz, "The Love That Faded," is a sweet-croaked séance; Lucinda Williams and Jack White, in different ways, show how much room Hank's writing gives singers to emote. The ghostliest moment is Alan Jackson’s "You've Been Lonesome, Too." Stoic and emotionally devastated, Jackson reconnects Williams with the country tradition he fathered. Today's Nashville stars can still learn a lot from Hank.

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