I'm One Of You

Performer: Hank Williams, Jr.
Producer: Hank Williams, Jr.; Doug Johnson
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Hank Williams, Jr. (vocals, guitar); Chris Leuzinger (acoustic guitar, dobro); Brent Rowan (acoustic, electric guitar & baritone guitar); Reggie Young, Brent Mason (electric guitar); Pat Buchanan (slide guitar); Larry Franklin (fiddle); Joey Miskulin (accordion); Jimmi Hall (saxophone); George Tidwell (trumpet); John Jarvis (piano, Hammond B-3 organ); Steve Nathan (Hammond B-3 organ, synthesizer, clavinet); Jimmie Bones (distorto Hammond B-3 organ); Joe Chemay (bass); Paul Leim (drums); Eric Darken (percussion); Wes Hightower, Ann McCrary, John Hobbs (background vocals). In 2003, when country had long since become the province of radio-ready pretty boys with a sound as polished as their profiles, Hank Williams, Jr. seemed all the more refreshing for maintaining his unrepentant outlaw country approach. The production on "I'm One of You" is as rough-and-ready as the songs, brimming with dirty, twangy guitars and bad-ass attitude. His inclusion of 1960s and '70s compositions by Jerry Reed ("Amos Moses") and Joe South ("Games People Play") is practically a public service in the age of paint-by-numbers Nashville. For that matter, Williams's "political" song "Why Can't We All Just Get a Longneck" (surely the best song title of the year) has a light-hearted honky-tonk approach that's infinitely preferable to Toby Keith's contemporaneous jingoistic excesses. And when Hank Jr. lays into a self-penned, obviously heartfelt tribute to a certain recently deceased outlaw country pioneer on "Waylon's Guitar," his roots become all the more admirably apparent.

Rolling Stone (11/27/03, p.94) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Williams sounds pretty damn vital here. Anchored by a meaty guitar sound, Williams turns out Southern party anthems rollicking enough to make his papa proud."

Hank Williams Jr. spent years trying to duplicate his famous father's sound. But his greatest success came when he shook off that weighty mantle. Williams's new sound integrated country and southern rock, a formula that made him one of country's biggest stars of the 1980s. Down the line, he proved to be influential to a new generation of rebels like Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker.

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