Ronnie Hawkins Albums (8)
What The Critics Say
In the wake of his hammy, barn-storming appearance in the Band's The Last Waltz, their early employer Ronnie Hawkins scored one final major-label deal with United Artists and released The Hawk in 1979. This was a major-label, big-budget affair, featuring big-name support as James Burton, Paul Butterfield, Garth Hudson and Keith Allison, who produced this record and gave it a slick, shiny feel not dissimilar to such late-'70s rootsy rock albums by Rick Nelson or revivalists like Rockpile. That production was an attempt to push Hawkins onto mainstream pop radio, as was the decision to record the synth-laced, smooth pop of "Shelter of Your Eyes" and Chinn & Chapman's pulsating, bubblegummy "Something's Been Making Me Blue" -- a pretty terrific pop tune that holds its own next to such great soft rock as Rocky Burnette's "Tired of Toein' the Line," even if it doesn't feel very much like the Hawk. Hawkins is enough of a professional to gamely give it his all on these glossy attempts at crossover, but as always, his heart is in roadhouse rock & roll and R&B. Not that it sounds like a roadhouse here, thanks to Allison's clean contemporary production, but the rest of the record finds Hawkins singing New Orleans R&B ("Down South in New Orleans," Dave Bartholomew's "Sick and Tired"), country with a rock & roll bent (Dallas Frazier's "Elvira," picked up from Rodney Crowell's recent record that revived it), blues (Jimmy Reed's "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby") and good old-fashioned rock & roll (Elvis' take on "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock"). This may never sound gritty, but it sure sounds fun, particularly to any roots-rockers raised on new wave, or classic rockers with an affection for this clean, punchy sound. In other words, it's not the Hawk at his best, but it's far from his worst and there's a certain charm hearing him roll with the punches and make an album that fits the sound of contemporary radio in 1979, even though he had to know full well that it would never have really been played there. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'The Giant of Rock & Roll'
Release Date 1/1/1974
Tracks 11
Label Monument
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Not quite as raucous as its predecessor, The Giant of Rock & Roll was Ronnie Hawkins' second of two LPs cut for Fred Foster's Monument label, and more than the first album (Rock & Roll Resurrection), it's not to be missed -- using a lot of the same musicians as on the first record, but with a better selection of material, it gives us Hawkins doing not only some first-rate rock & roll but also successfully covering songs by Gordon Lightfoot ("Home from the Forest") and Jesse Winchester ("Brand New Tennessee Waltz") -- and this was probably the only point where Hawkins intersected in repertory with Joan Baez and such relatively unlikely material as Bobby Darin's "Dream Lover," the latter very successfully, as well as bringing a fine original, "Lonely Hours," to the table. Some of the content represented a softer, more subtle side of Hawkins' work that was seldom played up by his reputation, but it worked. And this time out, in contrast to the earliest album, the moments of more restrained performance and sophisticated production do fit in with the rest of the material -- indeed, one of the highlights of the album is a rendition of "Bo Diddley" that seems like it should have two or three times more players and singers than it needs, but works anyway, and brilliantly. The result isn't anything earth-shattering, except perhaps for hardcore Hawkins fans, who were (and still would be) delighted by the range he displays here; but it shows that Hawkins still had a lot of what made him a great recording artist (and much more than just a straight-ahead rock & roller) in 1974. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
'Rock & Roll Resurrection'
Release Date 1/1/1972
Tracks 10
Label Monument
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Recorded a couple of years after the premature end of his contract with Atlantic Records, and three years after he parted company with Roulette (where he'd spent the late 1950s and all of the '60s), Ronnie Hawkins' Rock & Roll Resurrection was the result of a chance meeting between Hawkins and Kris Kristofferson, who was signed to Fred Foster's Monument Records at the time, and was persuaded that the oldies boom made it the right time to record Hawkins anew. Cut in Nashville in August of 1972, with a band that included Grady Martin, Pete Drake, Charlie McCoy, Stan Szelest, and Boots Randolph, Rock & Roll Resurrection captures captures Hawkins in amazingly good form, not quite a decade past his prime hit-making years. Though the first day's sessions reportedly degenerated into a drunken party -- or perhaps because they did, and Foster was forced to seize the reins of what was going on -- the ten songs that were issued are stripped down, highly energetic, and well-performed classics of the rock & roll genre, by Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Larry Williams, Bo Diddley, et al, augmented by one great Hawkins original, "Cora Mae," plus a Kristofferson original composed for the occasion, "The Same Old Song"." The latter, released as a single, was, alas, the one miscalculation in the body of music cut for the album, a slow-tempo, much too serious and over-produced number that utterly failed to capture what the rest of the sessions had been about, the spirit of the album, or the imagination of either the country or the oldies audiences -- it isn't bad listening,, and to be fair, it is a good compositional effort by Kristofferson, but in the context of this album it stands outside of the rest of what's here. The rest of Rock & Roll Resurrection has held up well, and certainly was to the credit of all involved, most especially Hawkins, who delivered his requisite energy and a good, raw performance. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Released in Canada in 1967, Mojo Man rounds up a bunch of sessions Ronnie Hawkins cut for Roulette between 1959 and 1963, so it's little wonder that the album feels a little uneven -- after all, it captures a time when Hawkins was trying a little bit of everything to reach the charts. None of his successful attempts are here, at least as far as the American charts are concerned, so this winds up being a sampler of styles from the Hawk. Much of this is firmly within the roadhouse rock & roll that is his specialty, opening up with a ripping version of Carl Perkins' "Matchbox," followed up quickly by a down-n-dirty grind on "Suzie Q" that rivals Dale Hawkins original. These, along with "Mojo Man," a fine spin on "Further Up the Road," and a terrific slow-blues grind called "What a Party" -- a sterling showcase for the Hawks, whose Robbie Robertson cranks out some clenched, thrilling guitar goaded on by a vocally appreciative Ronnie, who sure sounds like the forefather to Levon Helm's singing here -- are Ronnie Hawkins at his best. Elsewhere, when the tempo mellows down a bit, things get bumpier: Hawkins doesn't seem comfortable crooning the puppy love sentiments of "One Out of a Hundred," the version of "Your Cheatin' Heart" is a bit too mawkish and the anti-death penalty folk tune "The Ballad of Caryl Chessman" doesn't quite suit him. Hawkins could indeed do slower tunes, as "Lonely Hours" -- a good song that flirts with Ricky Nelson "Lonesome Town" territory makes clear -- but the problem here is that Hawkins and Roulette weren't quite sure how to get him on the charts, so they tried everything, even the stuff that didn't suit him...and then when it came time to compile Mojo Man, they threw it all together at random. There's some great stuff here, but there's a lot of not-so-great stuff, too, enough to keep this primarily of interest for serious rockers only. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'The Folk Ballads of Ronnie Hawkins'
Release Date 1/1/1960
Tracks 12
Label Rhino
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Originally issued on Roulette, this album was a kind of cash-in on the folk boom spawned the year before by Johnny Horton with his recording of "The Battle of New Orleans." The folk material here, includes a wailing version of "Motherless Child" and a subdued version of "The Cherry Song" (as "I Gave My Love a Cherry"), and works like "John Henry" and "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (done very moodily) in Hawkins' arrangements, and there's also stuff like Gershwin's "Summertime" and "Brave Man" from a Paramount movie Red Garters. Hawkins' aggressively moody vocals make all of it appealing. The backing chorus that appears on most of the songs is a bit off-putting, but overall, this is a fairly appealing record of its kind, with Hawkins in fine musical form and generally on target in his interpretive decisions. (British import) ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
