Search - Hank Williams III :: Straight to Hell

An instant classic across all genres

W. Smith | Seattle, WA | 09/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I hate country music. It's overly simplistic to the point of inspiring a boy / power girl band mood with zero lyrical depth and raw crap they crank out from sample boxes called music. It's rated G music at best Disney buys up for the next film about a cute ant falling in love with a mean dragonfly.



Hank III agrees with me, and he made an album rivaling Cashs' best work. Straight to Hell is by far one of the best albums to come from the 2000's, and boy we needed one."

Straight to Hell

S. O'Brien | 03/19/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This just might be the greatest country album of all-time, simple as that. It is killer from start to finish. Hank III is with out a doubt the leading outlaw in country music right now, the most talented, and this album is redefining country music. Disc 2 is incredible, but you have to cut it up in your computer. I'm not a big fan of the distorted noises, but if you cut it up you have quite a few really good songs of just Hank and his guitar."

Five for Disc One, but only two for Disc Two...

William E. Adams | Midland, Texas USA | 08/30/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a review of something labeled "clean version" of the "Straight to Hell" double CD album. I found it in the used bin of a local music store. As far as I can tell, the "clean" version deletes one track entirely from Disc One and bleeps out a few words on some other tracks. It is not hard to insert an appropriate substitute in your own mind while listening, so the censorship didn't bother me. Frankly, at age 65, I don't care for cussing within songs anyway. I consider myself a Hank III fan, and wish him well. He's been around long enough now so that I think he deserves a bigger audience. On Disc One, he presents mostly high-quality honky-tonk rock celebrating drinking, smoking, loving, cussing and fighting authority figures. Some of them were written by him, and while they are quite different from his grandfather's best, they will call to mind some of Hank Jr.'s rowdy ways from decades past. They will hold up to repeat listening, and if you don't take the boasts or even the sentiments very seriously, will make you smile as you tool down the highway. Disc Two, in my geezer view, is a sadly missed opportunity. There are songs on it, with minimum accompaniment, and if done with a bit more care, it could have been a fine contribution to Hank III's catalogue even if released alone. Instead, it comes with unpleasant distorted sound effects that go on way too long, and it seems just like a home recording of a drunk and his friends who are too wasted to be entertaining instead of annoying. Disc Two won't get a lot of repeated play, but there are moments on there that remind me that this fellow's talents are more versatile than the "drugged, drunken non-commercial artist" image he has cultivated. There's nothing wrong with "commercial music" that has an edge: his dad and grandad lived in that spot for their best work, and so did Willie, Waylon and many others. Disc Two often seems to be all edge and no sense, except when Hank III is actually singing a well-composed lyric. Disc One is EDGE with logic, great musicianship and interesting arrangements, and the second CD is to me a failed experiment worth hearing once. Buy it because Hank III deserves to be encouraged, even if he ain't perfect. He is definitely his own man, but the great genes in the family didn't skip him at all. I am interested to see what he brings to the audience five or ten years from now."