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Snow in Hawaii [Compilation]

Hank Snow
1 disc

1. Hula Love
2. Beyond The Reef
3. On The Beach At Waikiki
4. Hawaiian Sunset
5. My Little Grass Shack In Kealakekua, Hawaii
6. Tradewinds
7. Don't Sing Aloha When I Go
8. Blue For Old Hawaii
9. Hawaiian Cowboy
10. To You My Sweetheart, Aloha
11. Cry My Guitar, Cry On
12. Oahu Rose
13. Dreamer's Island
14. Bluebird Island
15. On That Old Hawaiian Shore With You
16. Everybody Does It In Hawaii
17. Tears In The Tradewinds
18. Pearly Shells
19. Now Is The Hour
20. Hula Love
21. Everybody Does It In Hawaii
22. Hula Rock
23. Message From The Tradewinds, A
24. Hilo March [Instrumental]
25. Sing Me A Song Of The Islands
26. Bluebird Island
27. Under Hawaiian Skies
28. My Kalua Sweetheart
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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 16429
Credits

Producer Chet Atkins; Chuck Glaser; Hugh Joseph; Ronny Light; Steve Sholes
Engineer
Personnel: Clarence E. Snow (vocals, guitar); Anita Carter (vocals); Hugh Gordon Stoker, William Matthews (tenor, background vocals); Monty Matthews (baritone, background vocals); Jack Shook, Velma E. Williams Smith (guitar); Eugene Johnny Beaudoin, Joseph Hale Talbot, III (steel guitar); Henry Newton "Tommy" Vaden (fiddle); Culley Holt (bass instrument, background vocals); Teddy Miller, Ernie Newton, Charles Randolph Grean (bass instrument).
Hank Snow often misses out when the greatest country & western singers of all time are surveyed, but he was certainly one of the best. A Canadian transplant, he understood the desolate life of the Southwest deeply, and evoked it perfectly. (Even though he grew up in Nova Scotia, he spent most of his adolescence on a fishing boat.) His deep, steady warble resisted most attempts at crossover, but he used it perfectly; it's no coincidence that Willie Nelson, who often phrased closer to blues or jazz than country, loved him and recorded a full album with Snow in 1985. Bear Family has surveyed Snow's studio career over a series of box sets -- including no less than 20 discs just for the American-based, major-label recordings that began in 1950 with his hit "I'm Movin' On" -- but they also offered a series of four thematic compilations in 2008 for those who want a steady middle ground (more music than the hits compilations offer, but less than the completist route). In total, they serve as a good portrait of Snow's great career, although they bypass the straight country and honky tonk material he did so well. Snow in Hawaii includes 28 Hawaiian songs, recorded throughout his career (1941-1978), and includes all of his lone Hawaiian full-length from 1967 (titled the same as this collection). Snow had a few hits with Hawaiian material, including "Tradewinds" (a song he wrote), but most of these songs were relegated to B-sides or album filler. Still, Snow understood the Hawaiian influence in country music from a young age -- he was playing a steel guitar bought by his mother before he reached his teenage years. Snow in Hawaii may not be a critical compilation for most overviews of Hank Snow's career, but it offers a good snapshot of a great artist. ~ John Bush