Greetings, gentle folk! Today I
have the day off, and I plan to spend it doing whatever I want to do. Let’s
make the first thing…a music review!
OK, technically the first thing
was a coffee. But now…a music review!
Disc 870 is….Risin’ Outlaw
Artist: Hank
Williams III
Year of Release: 1999
What’s up with the Cover? A pair of boots. If I saw those
boots in a vintage store I would totally want them, until I realized that the
left one was held together with duct tape. Then I would totally not want them.
If I saw these boots on my car seat (as they appear to be here) I would say “Get your damned boots off the seat, Hank!”
A fistfight would ensue, and Hank would win because he is hard core country,
and I am just a guy with a blog. As Hank would say, “if the shoe fits wear it, and if the truth hurts bear it.”
How I Came To Know It: I learned about Hank III from a
woman named Karen I used to work with at Treasury Board Staff in the Provincial
Government back in 2000. This was the album she recommended back then. I’ve
only run into her a few times over the past 15 years but “Risin’ Outlaw” has
been a constant companion because of her. Thanks, Karen!
How It Stacks Up: I have six Hank III albums. They all have
their charm but I’ll put “Risin’ Outlaw” in at #2.
Ratings: 3 stars
A lot of people tell me they don’t like country
music, and on the surface it is easy to see why. The top 40 country music
coming out of Nashville for the past twenty years or so is awful. However, it
would be a mistake to dismiss all country out of hand. There are amazing acts
toiling on the edges of the industry that are making gritty, edgy,
thought-provoking music that is 100% country. Hank Williams III is one of
these.
“Risin’ Outlaw” is Hank III’s first album, as he
began his journey to step out of long shadow cast by his grandfather, and the deep
hole dug by his father. It isn’t easy to answer for the legacy of the former or
the sins of the latter, but Hank III does a great job of ignoring the noise and
staying true to himself.
Hank III clearly wants to create that distance, with
“I Don’t Know” starting some classic
country twang and opening the album with these lines:
“I might get drunk and rob a bank
Shoot my car if it don’t crank.”
Translation: I am going to do my own thing with this
music, and I can’t say where it is going to end up for any of us. He would go
on to do outlaw country, death metal and some kind of punk/rock/country mix all
its own, so I’d say he lived up to his own hype.
There is an irony here, because all of the tracks on
“Risin’ Outlaw” are written by other artists, so while all the honkytonk
throwback songs may speak to the type of
artist Hank III wants to become, they aren’t him speaking directly to us as he
does on his later albums.
Fortunately, the songs chosen suit Hank III’s vibe
very well, with themes of heartache, drinkin’, drugs and dangerous women
sprinkled liberally through the album. These same themes will be featured on
his later works where he clearly has more creative control. The composition of all
of the songs is stellar, but I did miss some of the edge and potty-mouthed fare
that Hank himself would sing later.
These songs definitely hearken back to Hank senior,
and it was refreshing for the sound to return. It reminded me of what Dwight
Yoakam was trying to do a few years prior. “What
Did Love Ever Do To You” could easily be a Dwight Yoakam song with its mix
of rockabilly and traditional country, but for the most part these songs are
more Hank senior and less Yoakam.
Because the songs are so traditionally composed,
they can sometimes stray into sounding derivative, but they are so good you
forgive it and go along for the ride. Also Hank III is the real deal, and puts
everything he has into the performance. You can tell that music is important to
him, even when the songs are written by someone else.
Also a quick word on the musicians who accompany
Hank III, all of whom are excellent. In particular stand-up bass player Jason
Brown, who grounds these songs with a playful honky tonk sound that winks at
the traditional while infusing the bottom end of the songs that is thoroughly
modern.
In some ways, “Risin’ Outlaw” is a guilty pleasure
of mine. It isn’t as edgy as any of Hank III albums that came later, and is
probably the most produced of the lot. This should make me like it less, but I
can’t resist the songs which are cleverly written and expertly played. For some
this is as far as you’d want to go into Hank III’s catalogue, for others it
serves as a great entry point for the grittier material to follow. I am definitely
part of the latter group.
Best
tracks: I Don’t Know, You’re the Reason, If the Shoe
Fits, 87 Southbound, Lonesome for You,
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