Photos by Bracken Mayo
I’ve wanted this to happen for years, and though there was only a week from when the show was booked to the concert, it happened.
Hank Williams III came to Murfreesboro.
“My Bowling Green show that was going to close out the tour fell though,” he said in early May, indicating that a Murfreesboro stop would be a likely endcap to the US leg of his tour.
So on May 18, Shelton Hank Williams, a.k.a. Hank III, made a stop at Gilligan’s.
“I have a son who goes to college in Murfreesboro,” he added.
Regardless who his kinfolk are, his music is life changing for many. Not many artists capture the hillbilly rowdiness that the crazed country rebel himself can.
This tour is extra special for Williams; the shows consist of four hours of almost exclusively his music.
“I take pride in playing the longest show of any national touring act for the lowest ticket price for the working man and woman,” Hank III said.
What happened at Gilligan’s prior to 9 p.m. could qualify as one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. This more country-flavored portion of the evening—”to pay respects to the roots first,” as Shelton says—drew heavily from the Straight to Hell record he put out in 2006, with some other gems sprinkled in including that catchy lyric “That Bitch She Stole My Cocaine,” a version of the “best Hank Williams song ever,” “I’ll Never Get out of this World Alive,” and a pit breaking out during “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” Who else can make that happen?
As the set goes on and the crowd got more expressive, one fan jumps onstage, another larger fellow follows to remove him, and the scene was quickly going down the tracks towards broken bottles and kicks in the ribs, Hank III stops mid-song, a moment of awkward silence ensues, and he leans to the mic and says, “Go easy on him, he’s just having fun in his own way,” in his distinguished drawl.
Well, that should calm everyone down, I thought. Nothing but gentlemanly behavior will come from this bunch henceforth, but then III mutters something, immediately exchanges his acoustic for an electric without finishing the prior song and kicks the intensity up two notches, going into “Hillbilly Joker” from the “Bootleg” days. This causes many in the crowd to go from energetic and bouncy to absolutely wild insane-pandemonium rowdy. It has only just begun; that’s why they call him Full Throttle.
The coming portion of the night featured more material from the three “Bootlegs” that Hank III slipped out beginning in 2000. Reportedly, Curb Records, to whom he was contractually bound, did not want to release this type of music at the time. Apparently, the all-knowing Music Row shot callers at the label felt a clean-cut, twangy reincarnation of Hiram (Hank Sr.) was the more marketable product. They didn’t know Hank III very well. He recorded what he wanted, music that made one want to get dirty and break things, and if the label didn’t want to put it out, he’d give it away. The tracks spread, I was lucky enough to encounter them and the fans wanted more.
Hank III has since fulfilled his obligation with Curb, though they still own the songs that he recorded during his time under contract and they very well may release even more of them before it’s all over to milk the deal for every dime it’s worth.
But Shelton said a huge feeling of release and relief hit him in late 2011, as business and creative freedom were his. Williams simultaneously released three albums (and one of those, Ghost to a Ghost/Guttertown, was a double at that).
“I couldn’t sell my own records at my shows for 20 years,” he said.
So, after Hank III’s time on the electric at Gilligan’s—that segment billed under the Hellbilly name—the evening continued with material from Attention Deficit Domination, another of the 2011 releases.
Hank let his hair down for this one, literally. The band was simply him on distorted electric and a drummer, the set was tight and varied enough to hold interest, plus a screen overhead projected flashes of lots of engaging images, though the absence of lyrics and sparse instrumentation could sometimes suggest one-half of a local metal band’s writing session.
The show concluded with offerings from the other independent release, incidentally the first 3 Bar Ranch performances in Tennessee. Historic.
Though Hank III comes from a family tradition of American music royalty, “I had a very normal upbringing,” he says of growing up in nearby Franklin. “Jr. was on the road doing his thing.
“No one ever pushed me into music; it was a very natural progression…I got a drum kit when I was 7 years old. By the time I was 10 I was up onstage playing ‘Family Tradition.’ Before too long I started touring with punk-rock bands. But no one ever pushed me into music like they pushed my dad,” he continues. “When he was young, Audrey [Hank Jr.’s mother] was telling him to ‘get onstage and sound like your daddy.’”
Lately, Shelton says stuff from Jimmy Martin, Waylon Jennings, Queen, Wayne Hancock, Heart, Roy Duke and a variety of other artists have provided him musical enjoyment.
The tour travels though Europe through July 7, so if you missed the Murfreesboro date, hitch a ride up to Belgium or England. It’s worth it.
For future tour dates and more information, or to buy the self-released projects from 2011 on vinyl, visit hank3.com. And if you don’t like his hillbilly sounds…
