Ted Hawkins: The Ted Hawkins Story: Suffer No More

Ted Hawkins' story sounds like fiction: Born and raised poor, Hawkins experienced jail and mental institutions, three marriages, thousands of hours busking on street corners and beachfronts, lots of world travel, and, after decades of struggle, a major-label record deal and the most widespread critical acclaim of his career. In 1994, following the release of his stunning breakthrough The Next Hundred Years, Hawkins toured America, then died of a stroke on New Year's Day 1995 at the age of 58. Now, as more people discover his remarkably expressive voice and somewhat limited catalog, Hawkins is starting to inspire the career retrospectives he has long deserved. Picking out a definitive Ted Hawkins recording is next to impossible—Evidence Records has released several great collections since his death, including a new one, and The Next Hundred Years is undeniably essential—but Rhino's Suffer No More is both an excellent primer and a must for fans. Spanning approximately three decades, it's got long-out-of-print '60s material (the rollicking 1966 single "Whole Lot Of Women"), excellent country-blues ("Happy Hour," from the 1986 album of the same name), previously unreleased recordings ("You're Beautiful To Me," "Happy Days"), compelling covers (Jesse Winchester's "Biloxi," Sam Cooke's "Be With Me Jesus"), and samples from each of his four studio albums. Hawkins' incomparable voice is often compared to Cooke's, but there's something else there: It probably has to do with the decades spent near sand and seawater, or the fact that his songwriting was informed by decades of hardship and poverty. But Hawkins was one of the most magnificent singers of his time, and Suffer No More provides another essential addition to his magnificent, thankfully still-growing catalog.