Beyond the Sunset by Hank Williams

Compilation producers: Colin Escott, Kira Florita. Recorded between 1950 & 1952. Includes liner notes by Colin Escott. Digitally remastered by Suha Gur (Universal Mastering Studios East). BEYOND THE SUNSET collects all the recordings Hank Williams made as his artistic (and on some level psychological) alter ego Luke the Drifter on one disc. Mostly, these are recitations rather than songs (although the edgy, minor-key "Ramblin' Man" is sung) and with a few exceptions, like the funny, anti-Stalin "No, No Joe," they're either unrelentingly bleak and despairing ("Men With Broken Hearts") or else cautionary tales ("I've Been Down That Road Before") presenting the sort of hard-won advice that Williams could dish out but not really take. Highlights include the now hopelessly politically incorrect but nonetheless heartfelt "The Funeral," and "Too Many Parties," a depressing one-act morality play co-written, oddly enough, by the same up-beat Tin Pan Alley denizen responsible for "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover."