Album Review: Brothers of the 4X4 by Hank3

As the grandson of country icon Hank Williams and son of country-rock superstar Hank Jr, country music is in Shelton “Hank” Williams III’s blood. But he’s carved his own niche, melding sparkling fiddle-and-banjo bluegrasswith punk in a style he calls “hellbilly”. This excellent eighth solo album again finds him honouring tradition while taking pride in his struggle to find his own path (“I’ve earned every one of my deep and lonely scars”, as he puts it).

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Hank Williams III, or Hank3, as he seems to prefer it lately, may be the grandson of Hank Williams and the son of Hank Williams, Jr., and therefore part of the royal family of country music, but he's taken to the mantle with a good deal of acrimony. His first taste of being a musician saw him playing drums in punk bands, and when Curb Records signed him to a recording contract in 1996, well, they thought they were getting a country star and Hank3 had other ideas, although he's every bit as country at heart as he wants to be. What followed was a sad soap opera of duels and threats between Williams and Curb for over a dozen years before he was finally free of his contract.

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After emerging from a stifling decade under the thumb of Nashville's Curb Records in 2011, Shelton Hank Williams unleashed a torrent of new material that for the first time properly reflected his personality's country/punk dichotomy. That's further displayed on Brothers of the 4x4A Fiendish Threat, the first by Williams' new punk project, simply called 3. While the sound on each is different, the attitude is the same, with Hank proudly waving the flag on behalf of the current generation of outlaws.

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