Mississippi-raised Ted Hawkins found more satisfaction busking on a California beach than in recording or touring. The gravel-voiced singer and exemplary songwriter nevertheless eked out three albums of soulful folk and country between 1982 and his 1995 passing. "What do you want from the liquor store?" asks Hawkins in "Sorry You're Sick"—"something sour or something sweet?" The problem/solution of alcohol is also the theme of "Happy Hour," a honky-tonk lament George Jones might envy. No stranger to the penal system, Hawkins wryly addresses a homecoming hurdle in "Bad Dog."