I put the CD aside. Later, I listened again and reconsidered. I paid dues for the right to address doping and drinking and songs that deal with this subject. The price: a non-stop ten-year high followed by a fifteen-year federal sentence for smuggling marijuana. Friends sit in prison for providing you the materials you use to get stoned. Some will never see the street. If Hank III can sing about hard-partying ways and sell a CD, then I deserve my say. But that’s not the only reason I need to write about Hank III. This CD is too good or too bad to be ignored, depending on your perspective. There’s nothing mediocre here. Hank III doesn’t bullshit. He’s brutally honest, in your face, vulgar, unashamed and unrepentant. His songs say, here I am. Nothing hidden. Take it or leave it and screw you if you don’t like it. Only, harsher. The CD is so rough it carries a parental advisory. He starts and ends the album singing about a battle with Satan. I have no problem with that. I also believe Satan exists. In fact I’m so convinced, when I hear someone say they don’t believe in him, I realize I’m talking to a person that has no clue what’s happening in the world around them. Not even on first base. (That, for those of you out there calling yourself preachers, doctors, scientists and psychologists). How can anyone profess faith in the God of Abraham, Jesus or Mohamed without also recognizing the existence of evil? Their entire message describes a battle of good and evil spirits. Like many in our era, Hank III turns to drugs and booze to combat depression and a myriad of other problems life throws his way. I am convinced this is a minor failing. We’re all on dope of some kind or other, whether we admit it or not (coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, sleeping pills, Prozac for depression, Ritalin for the kids, women taking estrogen to combat the effects of menopause, maybe a little testosterone or some muscle building steroids to make an old men feel young again, antihistamines, anti-acids, aspirin, ibuprophen, pain killers, a little ephedrine for the road, allergy medicines, etc. Viagra for a hard-on, anyone?). If there weren’t something enjoyable or redeeming about doing drugs why would anyone use them? They make us feel better. Perhaps they help us cope or function. They also can make us feel like crap sometimes. Or kill us. Hank III paints an unvarnished and realistic picture of why he uses drugs and the effects, both good and bad. This is valid and necessary information to gain understanding about the human condition. To do so isn’t politically correct. I’m confident no one will ever accuse Hank III of being politically correct. Hank III and I share contempt for the bullshit coming out of the Nashville pop-country culture. Why? Because it bears no semblance to the real world in which we live and struggle. Worthless drivel. Worse. It ain’t real. Hank III’s semblance to his grandfather is frightening. Unlike Hank Jr., both are gaunt in appearance—almost skeletal. Upon hearing Hanks III’s distinctive voice you’ll swear it’s an echo of Hank Sr.’s voice from beyond the grave. I’m not exaggerating. I doubt there’ll be any invitation to play the Grand Old Opry forthcoming for Hank III. Nor will Nashville music executives fight for a spot in line to sign a contract like they did with Jr. Hank III is a man in search of roots, roots he couldn’t find in the rhinestone, silver and plastic world where Hank Jr. earned his living. These roots are the same of which his grandfather sang—a world of hillbillies, outlaws, swamp-dwelling, crawfish-eating, coal-mining, and hard drinking country folk A place where the women are as tough as the men they marry. Maybe tougher. He knows his is a life that won’t appeal to all and he likes it that way. He has searched high and low to find those roots, often in the wrong places. I hear a tinge of regret in the last song of the first CD, Angel of Sin, which very well could have come straight out of Solomon’s proverbs. When you’re loving an angel of sin she’ll never be there for you. Straight to Hell is a two CD album. The second CD starts off with an interesting sounding song about a man about to die in a Louisiana penitentiary and then regresses to a series of sound effects I can do without, in the vein of a tortured journey through a bad acid trip. The first time I listened, I failed to make it through. The second time I was ready to quit the damned thing again when another series of interesting songs, sounding like the first Hank—once again, from beyond the grave—came along. Some of them are very good. I find it unfortunate that the listener is forced to endure too-long stretches of annoying sound effects to discover these gems. I have advice to offer Hank III. It wasn’t your grandfather’s tragic death that made him a man of consequence; it was an infectious love of life he captured in songs. Hank Sr. also understood the spiritual battle we face. I heard him sing I saw the light and I believed he did. You sir, have inherited a great and wonderful spirit. No drug can kill this spirit but the body in which it is housed is fragile. It can and will die, given enough drugs. Blessings come with your gift, but also responsibilities. And one hell of a battle. Satan would like nothing better than to take you out. I know what I’m talking about. I stayed high for so long that now being sober has become a high of sorts. One I relish. The only hell for those God counts as his own is to be found right here, just outside your door. You ain’t headed straight to hell, you’re there now. Keep it honest, Hank III, and I’ll keep listening.
Purchase Hank III’s latest CD at LoneStarMusic.com
——————– About the Author – Don Henry Ford, Jr.
When Don’s not writing books he lends out his talent to Americana Roots to put together great articles like this. If you’ve enjoyed what you read, then pick up Don’s latest book Contrabando: Confessions of a Drug Smuggling Cowboy at your local bookstore or online at Cinco Puntos Press.
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