Hawkshaw Hawkins, Vol. 1

King Records originally assembled this album in 1958, five years after Hawkins left the label, but long before his return in 1962. Surprisingly, while it contains "Slow Poke" and "Sunny Side of the Mountain," it doesn't have his other big hits from his first period with the label, including "I Love You a Thousand Ways" and "Dog House Boogie." It does offer a cross section of his honky tonk and traditional country material; Hawkins could be ultra-sentimental, but he could also boogie with the best of them, and this disc fills in some holes left by the Bear Family box. There are, as usual for King, no notes or session information and no information on the year of release of any of the songs. The audio quality on the 1988 remastering leaves something to be desired -- the sonics on some of it are a bit compressed, but there may not be much that can be done about this, as some of the stuff goes back to the mid-'40s, and the producers have at least had the courage to pump the volume up high, so the guitars are nice and loud (check "Rattlesnakin' Daddy").