Ronnie Hawkins - The Folk Ballads Of Ronnie Hawkins (1960)

Ronnie Hawkins is an American rockabilly singer.

Ronnie Hawkins' third album was an odd one. Presumeably it was Roulette Records' attempt to cash in on the folk boom and remarket him as a folk singer, but he was always going to be rockabilly at heart and so the outcome was quite odd. The album was recorded in Nashville with session musicians, and so didn't feature his usual backing band The Hawks. A couple of songs did have quite a hard edge to them and didn't sound too far from his rockabilly material (surprisingly one of these was a cover of George Gershwin's "Summertime"), but most of the album had a softer, acoustic-based folk-country-pop sound, and included a number of traditional folk songs. It was the sort of early 60s commercial 'folk' that had generated hits for other artists at the time but ultimately has not aged well.

It didn't succeed in re-inventing him as a folk star, and the experiment was short lived. But though his recording career was flagging, he was still putting on a great live show.

Mr Dynamo (1960) <|> Ronnie Hawkins Sings The Songs Of Hank Williams (1961)
More from Ronnie Hawkins

Download