Leon Russell is as responsible as anyone for cultivating my love of country music. Back in 1973, I bought a country album by Russell called "Hank Wilson's Back" because I'd been on a major Leon Russell kick since seeing him in "The Concert for Bangladesh" a couple of years earlier. That album probably pushed me toward George Jones, Lefty Frizzell, Marty Robbins...
Over the years, Russell recorded a few more albums using the Hank Wilson moniker, but I never bought them. This collection gives me a chance to catch up and to remember why fell in love with Russell's music in the first place.
It's not a straight country album, of course. Everything Russell's ever recorded draws on a variety of genres, much as Ray Charles did. So it's fitting that a wonderfully twangy and soulful rendition of Charles' "I Believe to My Soul" is included on "Best of Hank Wilson."
There's some straight twang, too. Folks who grew up watching "The Beverly Hillbillies" in the '60s will love "Ballad of Jed Clampett." Hank Williams fans might be amazed by Russell's spicy rendition of "Jambalya." My grandmother, who was perhaps the world's biggest Tennessee Ernie Ford fan, would have appreciated Russell's bouncy cover of "Sixteen Tons."
My other favorite tunes on the album are Russell's heartbreaking duet with Willie Nelson on "He Stopped Loving Her Today"; Russell's rockin' version of "Mystery Train"; and his swinging rendition of "Wabash Cannonball." Really, though, I like all 22 songs on the collection.
