Hank Williams, Chet Atkins and Conway Twitty on DVD

Eagle Rock Entertainment has gone deep into the TV vaults and resuscitated some old shows for new DVD release. And while the stars and the music are great, the shows themselves show just how awful TV can be and how there's no substitute for good writing even when you're presenting musical legends who need no introduction.

Hank Williams, the Man and His Music is arguably the best of the three discs. It's quite a moving tribute in places, and includes a series of biographical vignettes featuring Jim Owens as Hank Sr.

Hosted by Hank Williams Junior, and featuring a bevy of guest stars paying tribute to the great entertainer, it's a decent show and features a lot of good performances of Williams classics.

The "non-biographical" parts feature televised performances led by Williams Jr. and a lineup of guest stars. As with the rest of these DVD's, the writing and production values are very 1970's TV, and that isn't necessarily a good thing. Still, it's the music that counts, and this disc delivers very well.

Williams Sr's songs are timeless and have been performed by so many others since he first originated them, including such modern luminaries as George Thorogood. And even the bio stuff is interesting and it appears fairly honest because Williams is shown not just as a God of country music but as a very human being with plenty of problems.

The video quality is all over the map. It's old video tape, and though it's not too bad for the most part it does look its age. And some of the "bio" scenes look nothing short of awful.

Here's a listing of the songs and the stars who sing them: Hey Good Lookin' (Hank Williams Jr.), I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Kris Kristofferson), My Bucket's Got a Hole in It (Rufus Thomas), Nobody's Lonesome for Me (Kris Kristofferson), Jambalaya (Brenda Lee), Honky Tonk Blues (Jim Owen), Why Don't You Love Me Like You Used to Do? (Jim Owen), I Can't Help It if I'm Still in Love with You (Brenda Lee), You Win Again (Hank Williams Jr.), Move It on Over (Jim Owen), Men with Broken Hearts (Johnny Cash), Kaw-Liga (Johnny Cash and Hank Williams Jr.), Lovesick Blues (Jim Owen), The Conversation (Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr.), Cold Cold Heart (Faron Young), You're Gonna Change or I'm Gonna Leave (Hank Williams Jr.), Wabash Cannonball (Roy Acuff), You Win Again (Hank Williams Jr.), Your Cheating Heart (Teresa Brewer), Honky Tonkin' (Teresa Brewer)

The original recording on all three of these DVD's has been "extrapolated" to Dolby Digital 5.1, and though there isn't really any surround the overall audio quality is pretty good considering the source.

Chet Atkins looks very out of place as the centerpiece of this tribute to the master guitarist. He comes off as a shy, gentle man uncomfortable being in the spotlight, though when the TV writers let him shut up and play, it's easy to see how he earned his reputation.

This is an awful TV show, but there are some great musical moments. Atkins picking "Battle of New Orleans" to kick off the show is terrific, except that the producers would have done the man better justice if they'd dumped the orchestra in favor of a good band.

And speaking of a good band, one of the absolute highlights of this very Hollywood-ized show is the Charlie Daniels Band's incredibly tight performance of "In America," a song that's even more relevant in 2003 than it was when this show was taped in the 1970's. And it's wonderful to see Roger Miller performing his "In the Summertime" with his patented "country scat".

As hokey as the show is, the songs are great; it's just difficult to sit through the rest of the stuff waiting to get to them. Fortunately, you can fast forward...

Songs: Battle of New Orleans (Chet Atkins), Sugarfoot Rag (Chet Atkins), In America (Charlie Daniels Band), Frog Kissin' (Chet Atkins and Ray Stevens), The Year that Clayton Delaney Died (Tom T. Hall), In the Summertime (Roger Miller), Bye Bye Love (Chet Atkins and Don Everly), Kiss an Angel Good Morning (Charley Pride), Everything I Ever Wanted (Porter Wagoner), Four Strong Winds, Detroit City, Shame on Me (Bobby Dare), Oh Lonesome Me (Don Gibson), Night Games (Ray Stevens), Mama Knows (Jim Stafford), Just a Closer Walk with Thee (instrumental) (Chet Atkins, Floyd Cramer, Boots Randolf & Danny Davis), Goodtime Charlie's Got the Blues (Chet Atkins and Earl Klugh), Chet Atkins Hands (Statler Bros.), Instrumental Medley (Chet Atkins)

As with the Hank Williams disc, the show is presented in full frame, so it isn't 16x9 TV compatible, and we preferred the remixed "extrapolated" 5.1 audio track to the original one.

Conway Twitty takes a self indulgent trip down the Mississippi in "On the Mississippi," a TV event that features a lot of maudlin chinwaggin' among Twitty and his friends, with not nearly enough music thrown in.

According to the box, for some reason this show won the Music City News award for TV special of the year. Must have been a slow year. It's the worst of these three, if only because it's long on talk and short on tunes. Still, the tunes that are here are good ones, and there's a good blend of performers:

Hello Darlin' (Conway Twitty), I Lie (Loretta Lynn), Slow Hand (Conway Twitty), Roll On Mississippi (Charley Pride), Louisiana Woman Mississippi Man (Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn), You Win Again (Jerry Lee Lewis), Medley including Whole Lotta Shakin', Mona Lisa, and Danny Boy (Conway Twitty and Jerry Lee Lewis), Medley including Linda on My Mind, You've Never Been This Far Before, Til I Can Make It on My Own, and Stand by Your Man (Conway Twitty and Tammy Wynette), I Think I Just Heard a Heartbreak (Tammy Wynette), Stand Up Routine (George Lindsey), Why Me Lord (Conway Twitty)

Again, the picture is full frame and the quality is okay. And once again we preferred the extrapolated 5.1 audio mix because it offered a more lifelike sound - even when they're lip synching.

These DVD's are definitely flawed, not because of the digital disc medium, but because the basic shows themselves were. It would have been better if each of these had been a real concert, without the TV show banter, but what can you do? Still, they're interesting looks at three giants of country music, and as such they're well worth seeing.

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