Tampa Calling

Shelton Hank Williams III continues his reign as the ultimate death-defying Nashville bad ass/head case. The antithesis of pop country acts such as Tim McGraw, the hellbilly renegade’s fourth album proper finds him melodiously yelping about fighting, fucking, drinking, suicide, broken hearts, Satanism and snorting coke over hopped-up honk tonk and the occasional spooky sound effect. A serious rarity among Music City releases, Damn Right, Rebel Proud earned the singer/songwriter a Parental Advisory badge of honor for the second album in a row, making faux outlaws such as Toby Keith look like pussies in comparison.

Hank III comes from country music royalty but he and his famous father, Hank “Monday Night Football” Williams Jr., are about as close as Angelina Jolie and Jon Voight. Raised by his mom’s family on a dairy farm in Arkansas, Hank III claims that all his rich daddy ever bought him was a drum kit. It’s payback time on the new song “If You Can’t Help Your Own.” The jaded son sneers, “I ain’t got a thing to say to a man filled with greed.” It’s also highly rewarding to hear Hank III and his crack band deliver rebellious two-step numbers “Wild & Free” or “Me & My Friends,” and “I Wish I Knew” is a brilliantly stirring breakup ballad.

With the same angular face and high lonesome moan of legendary grandfather Hank Williams Sr., it’s disturbing to hear Hank III candidly discuss his own self-guided demise, especially when you consider that the original Hank was found slumped over in the back of a Cadillac en route to a gig, dead from a B12 and morphine cocktail at age 29. Senior’s final single? “I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive.”

Hank III is 35 years old and with each new album sounds, quite frankly, more strung out and nihilistic, with a great amount of the black humor found on past albums largely drowned out by deep despair. On the pyschobilly blitz “Long Hauls and Close Calls” Hank III bellows, “I don’t care if I die … ‘cause the devil is my friend.” Even more troubling is “Candidate for Suicide.” “Well, I hope I feel better when I’m riding in that hearse,” he intones, “and all my emotions have left me, and I no longer hurt.” Come on, Shelton, snap out of it. 3.5 (out of 5) stars

Here’s an interview I did with Hank III in 2006.

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