Posh Rock Rail
TIMELESS. . . HANK WILLIAMS TRIBUTE
Lost Highway Records ****

"Timeless" is a pretty decent tribute album that joins a growing collection of other albums of a similar vein. These tribute albums usually consist of a group of popular (or in some cases, not so popular) artists who are brought together on a recording where they pay tribute to a certain artist or band by doing cover songs. The artists involved at times stay close to the original songs in style and content, but at other times they go off on a tangent, altering the music or genre-style, sometimes drastically.

"Timeless" pretty much sticks to Hank Williams' born and bred hard country sound. A majority of these covers work, and a few are outstanding interpretations that prove interesting in their own right.

Hank Williams was an amazing country music artist who was part bonified hillbilly and part songwriting genius. Considered by many to be the father of country music, his influence and music continue to grow and spread even now, years after his death in 1953 at the age of 29 from alcoholism.

Bob Dylan opens the collection with his interpretation of "I Can’t Get You Off Of My Mind", an obscure cut from one of Hank's earliest sessions recorded in 1947. Dylan puts his own gruff stamp on the song but retains the original's "old-country feel".

Keb' Mo' offers up a simply wondrous version of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" that's worth the price of admission alone. He imbues the song with a great, earthy blues touch that is expanded upon by his cool vocals and instrumentation that includes piano, steel guitar and violin.

Other good cuts on the album include Tom Petty's rocking version of "You're Gonna Change (Or I'm Gonna Leave), Mark Knopfler's ethereal "Lost On The River", and Ryan Adams' living room style rendition of "Lovesick Blues" that really shows off his vocal abilities.

Three covers by female artists including Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams and Sheryl Crow give Hank's songs a bit of a twist by changing the viewpoint to that of the opposite sex. It's kind of weird hearing "his cold, cold heart" instead of "her cold, cold heart".

On the downside we get "Your Cheatin' Heart" from Beck, which was okay, but I felt to be a little too geeky. Also Keith Richards does his thing with "You Win Again". I thought they could have just left this cut off. Richard's vocals just pretty much suck, and the whole song just sounds thrown together and weak.

A couple of interesting Items to add: Hank Williams' grandson Hank III sounds so much like his granddaddy when he sings "I'm A Long Gone Daddy" that it's almost scary, but a wonderful scary. Must be in the genes. Then, closing the album we get Johnny Cash's cover of "I Dreamed About Mama Last Night". Hank Williams used to record religious cuts under the pseudonym
"Hank The Drifter" that almost always consisted of spoken word refrains about home, family and church. Johnny Cash with his one of a kind voice pulls this one off nicely, and it's a fitting closure for "Timeless".