Word: hanke
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...spectre of Hank Williams hangs most heavily over his son. Hank Jr. has been a country singer since his late teens, but only with the Friends album has he been able to break out of the pattern of bland and banal country tunes that marked his previous albums. Still, he is haunted by comparisons with a ghost he must feel hovers at his shoulder. The best song on Friends is "Living Proof," a testament to what it means to be the son of Hank Williams...
...revisionism. The best songs in the jukebox were progressive country: Jerry Jeff Walker, Waylon Jennings (and the Waylors), Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, Emmy Lou Harris, along with Jimmy Buffet in a more folk-pop direction and Merle Haggard in a more mainstream country tradition. With his Friends album, Hank Williams, Jr. joins this group...
...tradition where the guitar work often consisted of two guys thumping away on six-string acoustics, both playing rhythm. Progressive country is also characterized by its willingness to use the keyboard instruments scorned by older country music. The movement owes its origins to the music of Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams, with a more than perfunctory nod in the direction of Bob Wills...
...Hank Williams, Jr. was barely two years old on the December night his father died in the back seat of a Cadillac in southern West Virginia, minutes after finishing his last gig. Williams pere casts an awesome shadow over country music--"Jambalaya," "Hey Good Lookin'" and "Your Cheatin' Heart" have entered the pantheon of American popular music...
...overall tone of the album is near despair, and its saddest song is "Stoned at the Jukebox." When Williams sings of "loving that hurtin' music, 'cause I been hurting too," it seems to come from the heart-wrenching realization that Hank Williams, Jr. can never be entirely accepted for his own music, no matter how good that music...