When Shelton Hank Williams says there are a lot of people who don't know him, he's half right. Plenty of people know him by his stage name — Hank Williams III, or simply Hank 3. But for those who catch a Hank 3 show and are aware only of his family's country music legacy, there are a few surprises in store.
"I never have done a lot of the mass commercial stuff, so there's a lot of people who still have no idea who the hell Hank 3 is," Williams tells the Scene by phone. "You either get it, or you don't."
And there's a lot to get. Hank 3 released three albums' worth of material last year, including the double-disc outlaw country record Brothers of the 4x4. That same day he also released A Fiendish Threat, a punk record that'll throw anyone looking for family tradition for a loop. He pulled something similar in 2011, releasing the rootsy double album Ghost to Ghost/Gutter Town, his doom-metal record Attention Deficit Domination and Cattle Callin' all on the same day. That last one is a speed-metal album credited to 3 Bar Ranch (though Williams played every instrument), set to recordings of livestock auctioneers. Williams calls it "cattlecore."
The flurry of activity comes after a long and contentious tenure with Curb Records, a label that wasn't always amenable to Williams' louder side.
"They never really respected what I had to bring to the table for them," Williams says. "I can't even tell you how much lawyering over the years that was." Since parting ways, Curb has put out repackaged Hank 3 releases, including this year's Ramblin' Man. "It's just recycled stuff," Williams explains. "Nothing new is on it."
But since striking out on his own, Williams has had full creative control of his new material. That means basically living at the studio while recording and producing himself.
"I'll say, 'OK, I'm gonna make a country record,' " says Williams. "I'll sit down and start writing the songs first, and then I'll work on getting my guitar strong or getting my drums strong. I might play guitar for two weeks straight to get the foundation laid. Then I might play drums for two weeks to get it nailed in there."
Five or six months later, he'll have another 20-song album finished. "I do it that way while I can, because I've got the rest of my life to work with other people that are really great engineers or just to change some things up as I get older. For right now, I'm doing it over the top while I can, while I'm young enough to still pull it off. When I'm older, I might not be able to do it justice. I tell folks that I don't have the best sound, I don't have the worst sound, but I've at least got my sound."
To accommodate all those sonic forays, Hank 3 is playing a four-and-a-half-hour set night after night. On this tour, the set starts with two hours of country before moving into 20 minutes of "hellbilly" songs. The back half of the set starts with A Fiendish Threat, ventures into Attention Deficit Domination and ends with the 3 Bar Ranch record.
And while Williams rages through all of this material, things occasionally get a little out of hand. At a recent show, Williams says the crowd surged toward the non-barricaded stage and managed to turn off the PA. "I'm lucky I walked away with a full set of teeth," he jokes. "It was a good night in Chattanooga."
But Williams says he doesn't want to catch people off guard, whether they wander into the show because of his name or know him only from some of the higher-profile Curb releases. He says he goes out of his way to let people know what to expect, plus he doesn't want people who came for one style to feel like they didn't get their money's worth.
"Buzz [Osborne] from the Melvins and guys like that, they'd definitely rather see me go out there and totally fuck with the audience in a different way," Williams concedes. "I try to protect the fans as much as possible, keeping them in the right environment. And if I am doing a full-on family show, I go out of my way to let people know, 'Hey, this is not going to be what you might have been used to for the past 15 or 20 years.' "
Email Music@nashvillescene.com.
