A giant in his native Texas and one of the most important and successful country music performers in his lifetime, Hank Thompson had a sound that bridged Bob Wills’ brand of Western Swing to Ernest Tubb’s hardfloor honky-tonk. There wasn’t anything particularly extraordinary or unusual about Thompson — he didn’t have the doomed, wild aura of Hank Williams, the disarming sweetness of Lefty Frizzell, or the operatic tenor of Ray Price — but he crystallized everything for which the genre stood. Thompson boasted the best band in the business (just check “Wildwood Flower” or “This Train” for proof of the Valley Boys’ chops), and his songwriting skills were second to none. “Swing Wide Your Gate of Love,” “A Six Pack To Go,” and the immortal “The Wild Side of Life” are just a few Thompson tunes that would become country music standards. The track listing of Vintage Collections matches what you might hear on a good night in one of the southwestern dancehalls where the Brazos Valley Boys played. This music is less about the achievement of each individual song than it is the cumulative effect of an endless night in which sorrow, romance, and beer fold into one all-encompassing comfort.