Hank III - Rebel Within
Review By: George
Peden, CSO Staff Journalist
8/1/10
One
listen and you will quickly know. Hank III, born Shelton Hank
Williams, is an acquired listen. However, on saying that, if you
like what you hear from this stubborn modern day outlaw, one
offering a punch and a kick to the established ideals of what
many consider country music, then you’ll understand, and
quickly, that it’s about the music more than the cha-ching of an
in-tune industry cash register.
Simply, Hank III is a
maverick. He does not tread the well-marked Music Row pathways,
his route is diverse and off the Nashville beaten track with its
hunks, hats and contrived images. The son of Hank Williams Jnr
and the grandson of the iconic Hank Williams, Shelton treads his
own weary path.
Space does not allow a
complete resume of Hank’s boy. However, underneath the crumpled
hat and the multicolored etched arms beats an ambition to keep
tradition alive. Shelton’s family legacy arrives well known –
there have been the stories, some tall tales but mostly well
founded, of his dad’s pill poppin’ and depression, and the
legendary death of his granddaddy before the tarnished age of
30.
This sometime punk
rocker with the thrash metal leanings entered country music in a
manner befitting one of his granddaddy’s tunes. Shelton owed the
court money. A lot. It seems there was a sum of $60 000 in
overdue child support involved, the result of a one-night
affair, which had occurred three years before in 1995. To beat
the debt, he did what anybody with a name to sell would do; he
turned to an asset his was overly familiar with – music.
He signed with Curb
Records, delivered up an album of which he is now bitterly
disappointed, Three Hanks: Men With Broken Hearts. The
album was a cut and paste of the three men, designed one would
suspect to give the perception of a unified legacy.
Several albums on Curb,
again disastrous and outside the wanted creativity of Hank III,
saw litigation and court, as Hank aired his contractual
dissatisfactions.
Now with his fourth and
final Curb outing, Hank III, who not only has the appearance of
his long departed grandfather but also the vocal similarity,
delivers an album that looks at life the way it is, as opposed
to the should be ideal.
Listening to these 10
self-penned and one co-written tunes, you come away with the
distinct opinion there has been more than DNA coursing through
the veins of Shelton Williams. Rebel Within is a
honky-tonk driven reveal on tunes that trace depression, drinkin’,
addiction and the toll it exacts, dysfunctional bonds and
family.
It is an acquired
listen.
With Hank III as
producer, the album is unapologetic. It is uncompromising. It is
raw, true. However, it is like the music we have come to expect
from this artist. The fusion of country, power punk, hellbilly,
alt country and hard played twang is as biting, as it is
exciting.
Now with the freedom on
cutting the ties with Curb, fans and the curious alike can only
speculate what his next album will bring. For now, Rebel
Within serves as a timely introduction to those
possibilities, as does his back catalogue.
Standout cuts are
“Getting’ Drunk And Fallin’ Down” a ode to getting wasted;
“Rebel Within”, and the karaoke fun of “Drinkin’ Ain’t Hard To
Do”, and at 6.32 the album’s longest cut “#5” is a stark and
real look at the truth and evils of addiction.
Track
Listing:
Getting' Drunk and Fallin' Down / Rebel Within / Lookin' For A
Mountain / Gone But Not Forgotten / Drinkin' Ain't Hard To Do /
Moonshiner's Life / #5 / Karmageddon / Lost In Oklahoma / Tore
Up and Loud / Drinkin' Over Mama
www.hank3.com
www.myspace.com/hank3
