Not only in country music, but also in early rock and roll, there is no one who was not influenced by Hank Williams. Why, even such powerful “colored” performers as Fats Domino and Ray Charles recorded his songs without being embarrassed at all. And Williams’ first hit, “Move It On Over,” sounded like rockabilly seven years before “Rock Around The Clock.”
The sudden death of “Hillbilly Shakespeare” at the age of 29 shifted the expectations of the public onto the fragile shoulders of a descendant. And although growing up was still a long way off, already at the age of fourteen, Hank Williams Jr. sang along to his father’s recordings on the Ed Sullivan show, and a year later, in 1964, he released a long-playing debut, consisting, of course, of daddy’s inheritance. Only in 1975, having fallen off the peak of Ajax and broken many things in himself, including bones and worldview, Jr. abandoned the thorny path, going into country rock, outlaw country, and then into the blues. The vertical pupil of show business has switched to the third generation.
The Jr.’s firstborn, Shelton Hank Williams III, was born on December 12, 1972, bore a striking resemblance to his grandfather and was immediately identified for slaughter. Perhaps his father warned him, perhaps Shelton himself came to the appropriate conclusions after watching enough behind-the-scenes music for ordinary farmers and ranchers, but as soon as his hands grew up, he began playing drums in the most God-awful punk gatherings he could find.
The reckless bestiality continued year after year, but all the idiotic things come to an end: in 1996, it turns out that the Third has a Fourth, who is already four years old. Shelton immediately decided to participate in custody, but the judicial authorities suggested that he first put an end to the foolishness and find a more stable way to earn money. The third one turned to the Younger One, and dad understood him right off the bat. This is how the album “Three Hanks: Men With Broken Hearts” appeared, where the songs of the great First, including the aforementioned “Move It On Over”, sounded in the right key, seasoned with the rockabilly groove of the rhythm section, the baritone twang of the telecaster and the author’s voice on the backup tracks. Unexpectedly, it turned out that the many summers of Hank III’s punk alcoholism had no effect on his family talents, the yodeling vocals gave out the pure intonations that grandfather became famous for.
In 1999, Shelton signed a contract with Nashville Curb Records, where his first real solo album “Risin’ Outlaw” was released, an excellent record by all standards, which the main performer hated immediately, later calling his next record, “Lovesick, Broke & Driftin'”, where the Third one was already truly revealed. as a master of caustic language, a kind of “Hillbilly Bernard Shaw”, praising rural hedonism, not forgetting to throw a goat nut in the direction of the Grand Ole Opry.
While continuing to regularly record excellent country music laced with southern cynicism, Hank began flirting with stoner, hardcore, and cycobilly on the side and making friends with marginal guys like Phil Anselmo and Those Poor Bastards, as well as respectable psychopaths like Les Claypool and Tom Waits. In 2013, Hank the Third released two albums at once. The outlaw-country “Brothers Of The 4×4”, although a double, is not as interesting as “A Fiendish Threat”. As Monty Python would say: and now something completely different. Psychobilly? Yeah. A cowpunk? Undoubtedly. Sheer madness? Of course. And something else. So, the diabolical threat (a fiendish threat) is already hanging over us, Moon Dogs! Let’s go meet her!
Hank Williams III – A Fiendish Threat (2013)
02 Different From The Rest
03 There’s Another Road
04 Broke Jaw
05 Watchin U Suffer
06 Breakin Free
07 Face Down
08 New Identity
09 Feel The Sting
10 Fight My Way
11 Full On
12 Your Floor
13 A Fiendish Threat
Download or listen online Hank Williams III – A Fiendish Threat (2013) (mp3, 127 Mb)
Can I Rip U opens with an acoustic guitar distorted to the point of panic attack. The distorted double bass bursts in, jaws clacking in an attempt to catch up with the rhythm distorted by the cramp. The distorted voice of the Third is echoed by a chorus of dead coyotes. God forbid you hear this music at midnight on the porch of your lonely ranch.
Different From The Rest is a high-speed saiko action movie with a noticeable Ramones flavor and the smell of fresh graves. There will be blood on the dance floor today.
There’s Another Road – skeleton riders racing on gnawed horse corpses across the prairies of Middle Hell.
Broken Jaw is also racehorse, but perhaps more focused, as if compressed into a tight spring. Moreover, one of the riders, apparently, fell off his horse, breaking his dilapidated jaw.
Watchin U Suffer puts the listener in the center of a tornado made up of mosquitoes, which is brilliantly portrayed by a banjo and a violin. (Sweat) an onlooker is smiling with all sixty-four teeth.
Breakin Free unexpectedly discovers the intonation of Jim Hatfield in the Third.
Face Down is a perky punkobilly polka.
New Identity is that strange case when a western meets a body horror accompanied by a restless old-fashioned guitar.
Feel The Sting – the flight of a bumblebee over the New Orleans carnival before the invasion of the living dead.
Fight My Way is like a children’s rhyme, like most other punk songs.
Full On evokes in the inflamed brain the image of a dentist armed with a “grinder”.
Your Floor is an unexpected ballad, but what’s more unexpected is that it may be unknowingly parodying Ozzy Osbourne. And that makes it really funny.
A Fiendish Threat is an unsettling stoner that drags the willing victim/listener into a quicksand of fascinatingly ugly sounds.
Hank Williams III has brought to light a primevally funny, irrationally creepy, wildly dirty-sounding monster hailing from the darkness and ancient blood of the Wild West. It’s already here. In your speakers, in your closet, in the darkness under your bed. The moon looks like a broken banjo…
