Track Listing

1. That's How They Do It in Dixie
2. Family Tradition
3. All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight
4. Country Boy Can Survive
5. Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound
6. Tear in My Beer
7. If Heaven Ain't a Lot Like Dixie
8. Born to Boogie
9. Women I've Ever Had
10. Country State of Mind
11. My Name Is Bocephus
12. Stirrin' It Up

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17703 in Music
• Released on: 2006-06-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

Only 12 Tracks? This Falls Wa-a-a-y Short of 'Essential'
Hank Williams Jr deserves a thorough career-spanning single-disc anthology. Unfortunately, THAT'S HOW THEY DO IT IN DIXIE: THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION ain't it.

Don't get me wrong. Williams is one of the great outlaw country artists. I first got hooked on his mid-Eighties albums like BORN TO BOOGIE and MONTANA CAFE.

What ESSENTIAL COLLECTION does is cherry pick a handful of tracks from GREATEST HITS, Vol. 1-3 (all still in print) and then adds two new tracks: The title track (which features Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson, and Van Zant) and "Stirrin' It Up." There are just too many missing tracks to qualify this as "essential." At only 12 tracks and a little over 40 minutes, fans deserve more than this before spending their hard-earned money. A better purchase (although more expensive) is Curb's 2000 excellent 3-CD set THE BOCEPHUS BOX. At 65 tracks, it certainly provides more bang for your buck.

It's not that bad.
O.K. Maybe they should have left off "The Essential Collection", and just kept the main title. But, if you count all of the hits ole Bocephus has had in the past. It would be down right impossible to fit them all on 1 CD (unless it's an MP3 format). If you did we would be calling it a boxset...Not, The Essentials. Being a longtime member of the Hank Williams Jr Fan Club, this collection of past hits compliments this CD. Along with the two new recordings titled, "That's How They Do It In Dixie" with a little help from his newest country friends Big & Rich, a very talented Gretchen Wilson and Van Zant. The second entry, "Stirrin' It Up" Is not too shabby in it's own right. Myself I woulda like to have seen "If The South Woulda Won" and "If It Will, It Will" added to this collection. But, the hits that appear on this one is good enough. Like old ThunderHead Hawkins would say "I Ain't Going Peacefully".

Sure to please any fan of that great Country Music sound!
Hank Williams Jr. is one of the absolute giants of Country Music, and this CD is one of the best collections of his music that I have heard. It contains a lot of excellent tunes, including A Country Boy Can Survive, Family Tradition, and If Heaven Ain't A Lot Like Dixie. But, my absolutely favorite track is There's A Tear In My Beer, which is him singing along with his father. It's got a great sound, and sometimes I just listen to it over and over again. (I know, it's a well he can't return to, so there will never be another one like it, but I sure wish there was!)

This is a great CD, one that is sure to please any fan of that great Country Music sound! I really like this album, and I don't hesitate to recommend it.