Review: Hank Williams Jr.

Photos by Chuck France, Special to The Star

Progeny can be a blessing or a curse in the entertainment world. It can open scores of doors to opportunity, but it can also elevate expectations and provoke comparisons that are less than flattering. Or it can cast a person forever as the son or daughter of ... whomever. 

Ask Julian Lennon or Jakob Dylan or Rosanne Cash, whose varied levels of success in the music business have been overshadowed by the careers of the daddies who brought them into this world.

And then there is Hank Williams Jr., son of one of country music's most enduring legends. Unlike a lot of children of icons, Hank Jr. has never tried to hide or runaway from his connection to Hank Sr. In fact he revels in it. On the other hand, he has developed many things independent of his father's music and career: a personae, a music style and one of the rowdiest and most loyal fan-bases in country music. 

Saturday night, almost 7,000 of those fans attended the Rowdy Friends Tour at Sprint Center. Williams was the headliner of a four-act bill with Jamey Johnson, Eric Church and the Grascals. (And sorry, we were able to make it only to Hank Jr.'s set.)

Williams brought a seven-person band with him, but he spent a substantial portion of his 90-minute set alone on stage with an acoustic guitar, singing, preaching and orating about his music and his lifestyle. His personality is as fierce as some of his music, which, when he delivers it with a band behind him, is a fiery mix of rock, Southern rock and the blues. 

He opened with one of those, "My Name Is Bosephus," a welcome to his fans and a warning to the uninitiated:  "Not everybody loves me / But those that do will fight / Right to the end ..."

And they will cheer and hoot and whistle and whoop and raise their beers when he sings lines from songs like "If Heaven Ain't A Lot Like Dixie": "Just send me to hell or New York City; it'd be about the same to me ..."

Williams' music rarely stays within the boundaries of pure country, but his personality -- his entire being -- is entrenched in the country/rural/backwoods lifestyle, which includes lots of hunting, fishing, drinking, smoking and a devout admiration for our military. He sang about all of those in "Country Boy Can Survive": "I can plow a field all day long / I can catch catfish from dusk till dawn / We make our own whiskey and our own smoke, too ..." His tolerance, it seems, is low for anyone who doesn't at least understand that lifestyle, which is what led to a rant against President Obama that ended with Hank Jr. flipping the bird and the crowd going into another orbit of rowdy.

The rest of his setlist included the "The Blues Man," "Kaw-Liga," "Outlaw Women," "Born To Boogie," "Dinosaur," "All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down" and "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight." 

He also covered Waylon Jennings' "Lonesome On'ry and Mean" and all night he honored the legends who preceded him, like Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino and, naturally, his father ("Hey, Good Lookin'"). And he thanked them for helping him become the musician he is. Hank Jr. isn't just a guy who co-writes songs and sings. All night he showed off his considerable skills on guitar, fiddle and piano. 

He closed with "If You Don't Like Hank," but before that he played one of his biggest hits, "Family Tradition," which puts his progeny into perspective: "I'm very proud of my daddy's name / Although his kinda music and mine / Ain't exactly the same ..."

To paraphrase another Jennings' song, it's hard to say whether Hank Sr. would have done things Jr.'s way, but he'd have to admit it's a different way and one that has succeeded and endured.

| Timothy Finn, The Star 

Comments

[Rebecca Gavin]

Barf...I'll take Hank III any second, minute, hour of the day, week, month or year.

And when has Hank Jr. ever plowed a field?

[Bubba]

Didn't anyone cover Uncle ALICE at the Ameristar? Maybe 900 people showed up. Didn't look QUITE sold-out. Ran across a couple of 40+ patrons who say they've NEVER seen ALICE COOPER before - as I told them you have a LOT to catch up on as they were having a great time. SCHOOL'S OUT!!

[wadkc]

I know this has absolutely nothing to do with Hank Jr., (I love me some Hank III myself, not Assjack) but I was taking a cruise this morning for a lovely Fluffy Fresh donut and got into the car and it was on Mix 93 and Rick Dee's Top 40. Lord have mercy! Top 40 radio is AWFUL right now. And this is coming from a man who has always loved the Top 40 Billboard charts. There is zero distinction between the artists and the songs. Everything is the same...bad. Nickelback sounded like Emerson, Lake and Palmer compared to this dreck.

What happened to the days when you would hear a Queen song, then Zeppelin followed by Olivia Newton John?

Sorry for the tangent. Back to your mountain climber...

[yeeeehaa]

Didn't anyone cover Uncle ALICE at the Ameristar?
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come on Bubba, you know they always choose cuntry over rock on this blog, why do you think it is called backtocuntryville?

[tim finn]

And we covered alice 9 months ago

[BoKEEFus]

I went to last year's ALICE COOPER show at Ameristar and it was the first time I had seen him live since 1980, and I was surprised at how good it was. It was the best "production" I have ever seen on that stage. For the Casino price I paid, I didn't feel ripped off (That means YOU, Cheap Trick....). I didn't go this time 'round, as I thought it would be the same exact show. If anyone went to both, was this time any different??

As for Hank Jr., not a fan, but I did see Unknown Hinson at Knuckleheads Thursday night and THAT guy is more Country, Rock, Outlaw, Rebel, etc., than ol' Hank will ever be, IMHO. If I want to hear a musician put on a Republican Rally, I'll go see Ted Nugent (who is incidentally on his way to Ameristar soon). I don't agree with 99% of what that meathead says, but at least he's funny.

[Cooper of the RnRHOF]

who this blog covers and whom it does not is veeeeerrry interesting.

I did not go see Alice because in protest of Zombie skipping this date of this tour.

Rob is playing ALL OF THE REST OF THE STOPS.

Rob is playing with Alice tonight in weechita, why he skipped KC is a mystery, but then again pretty much everyone is skipping KC these days.

Maybe we should move to a real city? maybe Omaha?? ( yuck I just vomited alil in mouth my mouth when I typed that ; )

[Dexter Morgan]

I heard Hank played a piano solo with his a**.

[Tim Finn]

he did.

[Bubba]

Okay, Tim Finn - you're right - you all did cover ALICE last August. I went to the Ameristar show and it was VIRTUALLY the same show he did last year there MINUS four songs - which were "Welcome To My Nightmare", "Years Ago", "Steven" and "Is It My Body" I do believe. Think this is the eighty-minute set he and the band worked out for his co-headliner trek with his younger bro - ROB ZOMBIE. I would have LOVED to have gone to Wichita on Sunday (May 9) - tix were just $35, so I heard. Couldn't find anyone to share gas expenses with. Oh, well - I'll live.

[Clint]

That show was crazy. Hank Jr is just his own guy. At one point he was listing cities he might play and they asked if he would play Wichita, Ks and he said no way. People started booing and he said "You can boo your a$$ right out the door."

Also, Neil Smith was front and center for Hank Jr's set which was pretty cool.

[Tim Finn]

Rockford, Ill.? Hell, no. (cheers) Albany, N.Y.? Hell, no. (cheers) Wichita, Kansas? Hell, no. (boo's and cheers)

[country jesus]

I find it interesting that at least 50% of the artists I see blather on and on about the atrocities of right wing politics with nary a mention in the Star's reviews. Lisa Lampinelli, Pearl Jam, Green Day...hell John Lydon and Wayne Coyne were bitching about Bush like he was running the Country. Maybe Roger Waters will bitch about Nixon.
A self proclaimed red neck complains about liberals and its news??? Will the sun rise tomorrow??? I guess I'm sick of politics mixed with musical events (mainly because most of these idiots - left or right have not a clue)...but I tolerate it.

[tim finn]

He didn't just complain he gave the president the finger and called him an idiot. ... remember when the dixie chicks got pilloried for saying they were ashamed to be from the same state as their president? times have changed.

[Mark G]

Too bad Hank and his crowd couldn't be there for the Roger Waters Wall show. They would be perfect for the "surrogate band" and the fascist crowds. I saw a Toby Keith concert just before the start of the Iraq war and it was one of the scariest experience of my life.