<i> This feature spotlights noteworthy compilations and reissues</i> . : HANK WILLIAMS TREASURE CHEST

Artist: Luke the Drifter (Hank Williams).

Albums: “Hank Williams: Long Gone Lonesome Blues, August 1949-December 1950,” “Hank Williams: Hey, Good Lookin’, December 1950-July 1951” (PolyGram).

History: By 1950, Hank Williams was the biggest country star in the land. Single after single was a hit for the lanky Alabaman. However, he and his mentor Fred Rose had a problem: What to do with Williams’ less commercial songs, particularly the ones whose rural humor, homespun philosophy or maudlin sentimentality would only be understood, for the most part, by poor white Southerners? The solution: Record these tunes under the pseudonym of Luke the Drifter. The fifth and sixth volumes in PolyGram’s valuable chronological series of Williams packages are the first to include Luke the Drifter material. The fourth side of each double LP consists entirely of these recordings--12 songs in all.

Sound: Williams once performed one of the Luke the Drifter songs (“Men With Broken Hearts”) and then commented, “Ain’t that the awfullest, morbidest song you ever heard in your life?” Sure was. And “Men” is typical of the Luke compositions: “You have no right to judge (others)” was the message; even bad men have reasons for goin’ bad. Same thing went for the “lady of the evening” in “Too Many Parties and Too Many Pals,” the unintentionally hilarious lament on Vol. 5. The girl might have been all right “if it hadn’t been for pettin’ parties, cigarettes and gin.”

“The Funeral” captures much of the redneck mentality of these tunes. Disturbingly ridiculous in its racism, it tells how black children are to be mourned too after they die, despite their “curly hair and protruding lips.” Most of the Luke singles were similarly preachy/weepy, and were half-spoken, half-sung. Some, however, were sung entirely, and a few were jaunty samples of comic talking blues: “Everything’s Okay,” “I’ve Been Down That Road Before” and Williams’ only political song, the Stalin-stallin’ “No, No Joe.” One Luke cut, “Ramblin’ Man,” is among Williams’ most haunting hound-from-hell wails, and after he died in ’51 it was reissued under his own name.

These two albums also contain three sides each of more standard Williams material--ranging from hits like “Cold, Cold Heart” to strange numbers like a previously unreleased version of “Angel of Death.” The LPs, like others in the series, are treasure chests loaded with gold and scorpions.