NASHVILLE |FR: MITCH SCHNEIDER/TODD BRODGINSKI/DIANA MENDOZA, MSO
‘DAMN RIGHT REBEL PROUD’
DEBUTS AT #2
ON BILLBOARD COUNTRY ALBUMS CHART AND
#18 ON TOP 200 ALBUMS CHART
AMID CRITICAL ACCLAIM
HANK WILLIAMS III has plenty to be proud of as his new album DAMN RIGHT REBEL PROUD debuts at #2 on the Billboard Country albums chart and #18 on the Top 200 Albums chart. Released October 21 via Sidewalk Records, the sixth album from the straight-talkin’ third-generation rebel sold close to 20,000 units and marks his highest chart debut ever.
Hailed as “poignant and pugnacious” by Gary Graff in Billboard, III creates an album “mapping complex emotions with a few economical strokes of the pen,” noted Randy Lewis in a three-star review for the Los Angeles Times. “Hank III keeps things engaging, thanks to a country-punk sound with a strange bent…,” declared Christian Hoard in a three-and-a-half star review in Rolling Stone, while Kory Grow sums it all up in his four-star review for Revolver: “this is what country should sound like.”
DAMN RIGHT REBEL PROUD is filled with a self-described “Jekyll and Hyde” mix of disturbingly dark stuff and “good ol’ country,” says III. The first single is the mutated truckers’ tune “Long Hauls & Close Calls,” which III thinks of as the album’s “crossover” track, explaining that “It’s got a little bit of the scream for the kids in black and a little bit of the banjo and dobro for the country folks.” Check out the video here: www.recordstoreday.com/Page/504.
For all the latest, check out www.hank3.com or www.myspace.com/hank3. Also check out www.reinstatehank.org and join III’s fight to get his grandfather reinstated to the Grand Ole’ Opry. Stay tuned for tour dates in 2009.
“…this is what country should sound like.”
“…Hank III keeps things engaging, thanks to a country-punk sound with a strange bent: He balances catchy, classic melodies like ‘Candidate For Suicide’ with weirder, more-rousing stuff like ‘Long Hauls and Close Calls,’ a speedy, banjo-laden cut where Williams proclaims his friendship with Satan.”
“…mapping complex emotions with a few economical strokes of the pen.”
“…poignant and pugnacious… Hank III has his punk and metal sidelines, but he is country to the core and has every damn right to be rebel proud.”
“Damn Right Rebel Proud is the epitome of Hank III’s rebellion and whiskey-soaked skills as a songwriter.”
“The album shines when Williams puts his considerable talent at guitar and drums on display, turning country stereotypes on their heads and playing country acoustic guitar rhythms at mind-bending speeds.”
"…an original, a demon-scarred buck whose hellbilly music mixes old-time pickin' and punk disrepair.”
“There are moments of pure beauty and uncommon insight from a man capable of playing top-notch traditional country music and subverting it in the same instant… Damn Right Rebel Proud is at its best—like Hank III—when it’s jacked up and drivin’ hard. ‘H8 Line’ and ‘Long Hauls & Close Calls’ are the highlights. The two tracks are pieces of country psychedelia that feel like a hard night of partying with a few unsavory characters.”
“With an epic song dedicated to punk hero G.G. Allin and enough F-bombs to blow up the Grand Ole Opry, Hank Williams III pounds home his cowpunk cred with a sledgehammer on Damn Right Rebel Proud. Along the way, the album (in stores today) also features a fair amount of tasty picking, the kind of virtuosity that Nashville's studio aces could display all the time if they weren't so busy imitating the Eagles.”
“What's great about Damn Right, Rebel Proud is that you hardly have a clue you're listening to a metal and punk album in the guise of highway-dusted country… he's brave, headstrong and reckless, perhaps the most noteworthy country antihero since Conway Twitty, much less Johnny Cash.”
“Hank Williams III hits hard and delivers his sixth CD with force and a loud ‘n proud rebel yell… ‘H8 Line,’ ‘Long Hauls & Close Calls,’ ‘3 Shades of Black,’ and ‘P.F.F.’ are the hybrid songs that make Damn Right Rebel Proud stand apart from previous HIII outings. ‘Long Hauls’ is the jewel that showcases this blend best…The bass slaps out of control and synchs with the drums in a train-from-hell beat and rhythm right out of the Johnny Cash songbook.”
“The music is incredible…It [the album] is better than 99 percent of country music being released and has a gritty sound to it.”
MSO Press Contacts:
818.380.0400
Mitch Schneider (mschneider@msopr.com)
Todd Brodginski (toddb@msopr.com)
Diana Mendoza (dmendoza@msopr.com)
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