Hank Williams Jr.

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Hank Williams Jr.

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Track List

In the years that have come and gone since he started recording, Hank
Williams Jr. has not forgotten where he came from; nor does he have a
problem knowing where he wants to go.  He still doesn't care what's
popular, what the market will bear, or "what people want" (or, more
accurately, what a handful of executives tell them they want). Hank Jr. does what Hank Jr. likes to do.  His newest album, "The Almeria Club," is a loving sample of that.  It is pure, in-your-face, "I like this music so you can either join me or lump it" attitude music.   More than that, it is faithfully, wonderfully executed and performed; it's a little
laid-back, it's a little frenzied, there's a little blues, there's a lot of
country - and it's all good.

Hank Jr. is no longer living in his Daddy's shadow. Indeed, his own shadow has grown exceptionally lengthy-after decades of playing his own style and saying to hell with anyone who doesn't like it, Hank Jr. is his own man. He's comfortable and content in his life.  He enjoys living NEXT to his Daddy's shadow, he is no longer intimidated by it.  But Hank Jr. also doesn't leave the past behind.  He remembers his father in two songs- "If the Good Lord's Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise," a newly-discovered Hank Sr. lyric newly set to music; and the "Tee Tot Song," a tender blues ballad which pays homage to a great old Alabama blues man, Rufus Payne (also known as "Tee Tot"), who taught Hank Sr. how to play guitar.

Hank also remembers those bluesy roots with his own blues pseudonym, "Thunderhead Hawkins," who sings the blues through Hank Jr. the way "Luke the Drifter" sang gospel through Hank Sr.   "The Last Pork Chop" is Thunderhead's tribute to food and the ladies who serve it... in true blues style, there are a lot of things you can infer from the playful lyrics! 

Hank's in a good mood doing these songs.  Cheerfully, he reminds us that while country's come a long way, you still can't use "The F Word."  In his estimable rowdy style, he informs us he's still "X-Treme Country."  He plays it forlorn and lonesome at "The Cheatin' Hotel," and he makes us laugh, perhaps even guiltily, singing to "Big Top Women."  He also remembers lost friends in "Cross on the Highway," and his love of country with "America Will Survive," his post-September 11 reworking of "A Country Boy Can Survive." 

Hank Jr. isn't for everyone.  Matter of fact, I never really counted
myself a big Hank Jr. fan, much as I had always admired him.  But after
this album, I may go out of my way to find more of his work, if only
because Hank Jr. is not one of those cookie-cutter cowboy [garbage]
singers.  The "country music industry" may have forgotten Hank Jr., Hank Sr., and their roots, but Hank Jr. has not.  This is country music, the way it's supposed to sound, and Kid Rock knows it, even if the McGraw-Hills and their coattail-riders don't.

Kathy Coleman Take Country Back March 2002

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