Hasil Adkins: Out to Hunch

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I have been thinking about picking this up since it was reviews in the Mojo With White Stripes on the cover. I was poking around soulseek and happened to come across a copy (thank you mr. Blount)

holy shit, this is insane madness. This is the kind of crazy backwoods rockabilly that I have been looking for. I would not play this in the car on a first date, but boy, it sure is good. No More Hot Dog's is not something you put on a mix tape to attract a women's interest.

So what is the story with this guy?

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Monday, 24 February 2003 06:52 (twenty-three years ago)

I think he's certifiable. At least I saw him at a very sparsely-attended Fat Possum showcase in D.C. (at the Black Cat I think it was, is that the name of the club near Howard University?) and he was clearly nuts. I was a little insulted that he should be featured along with some genuinely interesting bluesmen; the intimation that only a nutty, alcholic, barely competent wild white man could be the "primitive" equal of a older backwoods Miss. electric bluesman suggests some of the patronizing attitude at the heart of the FP aesthetic, methinks. OK, that said, it was pretty amazing. He strummed his guitar, pounded a bass drum, played the harmonica, and occasionally blew a trumpet (!). Worth seeing once--and how--but a little of this goes a long way, I thought, so I never bothered to pick up an album. Tell me how this album sounds.

Didn't Norton put out a HA album not long ago that solely comprised songs about chickens?

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 24 February 2003 06:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Out To Hunch is a classic compilation of Hasil's 60's recordings -- a genuine classic and as interesting as any Mississippi Delta bluesman. Some of the greatest self recorded rockbilly ever -- an amazing one man band.

― jack cole (jackcole), Monday, 24 February 2003 07:44 (twenty-three years ago)

There's a documentary about him, a half-hour video called "The Wild World of Hasil Adkins." It's worth tracking down. One of my friends saw him play live once, said it was part great rock'n'roll and part freak-show voyeurism. Not that Adkins seems to mind being the object of other people's freak-seeking.

― Jesse Fox, Monday, 24 February 2003 08:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Out To Hunch is ... a genuine classic and as interesting as any Mississippi Delta bluesman

A strange, apple-and-oranges comparison, and utterly false.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Monday, 24 February 2003 08:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm with Mr. Diamond on that one.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 24 February 2003 08:29 (twenty-three years ago)

let me rephrase that -- by Mississippi bluesman, I meant any Mississippi delta bluesman on Fat Possum.

― jack cole (jackcole), Monday, 24 February 2003 08:35 (twenty-three years ago)

nice save.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Monday, 24 February 2003 11:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Erg.

Rbt Pete Williams > Jr Kimbrough > > > > > > Hasil Adkins

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 24 February 2003 12:33 (twenty-three years ago)

"Tell me how this album sounds."

I have been listening to a bit of rockabilly stuff lately, mainly Sun-era Elvis, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, and some Jerry Lee Lewis. They all have a different take on the same idea, which is a musical style that is a confluence of Jazz, Western Swing, Blues, and Country.

Elvis has some rockers, but he has a lot of Tony Bennett in his style, and he croons for the most part. Scotty more can rock, but he is still a bit restrained in his playing.

Eddie Cochran had a good voice and a knack for writing a good tune. Cochran's main problem was that he was a Californian and he sounded like it. Great songs, with really slick production, but there was a certain soul that was lacking.

Gene Vincent was the fucking bomb, great songs, great players. His main problem was that he never really laid it down in the studio. The recording quality was bad, and the numbers never really took off.

And that leaves us with the Killer, Himself. Jerry Lee Lewis is God. Great songs, great playing, the production was there, and he knew how to put a vibe down on tape. He was a hell raiser, but Sam Phillips groomed and restrained him. He still put his soul down on the recordings, but it was not quite as wild as it could have been.

Hasil Adkins, there is something else. Total psychotic backwoods rockabilly primitivism. There was no refinement; it is just a full on intense rockabilly. The recordings sound like garbage, but they enhance the vibe of the songs. It is the sound of an unhinged hillbilly losing his mind while the tape recorder was running. It is not professional, not groomed and not styled for mass consumption.

He was channeling these feelings and shoving them in your face. It comes across a lot like old dirty gospel records. Not musically, but in the rhythm and the hysterical vibe. There is no restraint; he is just laying it down without pride or shame. I cannot get over how good it is.

I would not consider this a mass consumption record, if you want that go download LCD Soundsystem tracks. These tracks are raw, primitive, and intense. If Jerry Lee Lewis were even crazier, had less musical talent, and took more meth, it might sound a bit like this.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Monday, 24 February 2003 16:11 (twenty-three years ago)

my friend Klon (who's also trife's friend) might be making a movie with him. he showed me hasil's notes for the movie eg. 1) naked girls 2) heads - CUT OFF

― James Blount, Monday, 24 February 2003 16:15 (twenty-three years ago)

he plays Athens fairly often

― James Blount, Monday, 24 February 2003 16:15 (twenty-three years ago)

The Dancin' Outlaw, classic or dud? I say classic.

― hstencil, Monday, 24 February 2003 16:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic says I! I don't think his guitar sounds very "happy" tho. False advertising!

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 24 February 2003 18:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Rockabilly was rednecks trying to play blues and failing. Eddie Cochran is just rock and roll. There is a difference.

Amateurist, how do you get from Robert Pete Williams to Jr. Kimbrough? I like 'em both, just wondering where you see the connection there.

― frank p. jones (frank p. jones), Monday, 24 February 2003 19:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the collins kids weren't trying to play the blues

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 24 February 2003 19:20 (twenty-three years ago)

They both have records on Fat Possum, and they both are better than Hasil Adkins.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 24 February 2003 19:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Robert Pete Williams has a record on Fat Possum? Didn't he die a long time ago?

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Monday, 24 February 2003 22:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Rockabilly was rednecks trying to play blues and failing.

Um, that would be a giant "No."

― jack cole (jackcole), Monday, 24 February 2003 22:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Rockabilly was rednecks trying to play blues and failing.

Um, that would be a giant "No."

-- jack cole

OK, cartoonist, define it for me then.

― frank p. jones (frank p. jones), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 00:34 (twenty-three years ago)

The Collins Kids sounds a whole lot like blues to me.

The bit about rockabilly being rednecks trying to play blues and failing is something Jim Dickinson once said. I believe it, having gotten drunk in Tiptonville a few times. I attach no stigma to failure.

― frank p. jones (frank p. jones), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 00:41 (twenty-three years ago)

rockabilly = rhythm & blues + country & western reved up , etc. (noting of course the free exchange that has gone on between both the blues and country since the beginning because people like Charley Patton and Jimmie Rodgers, etc. were entertainers and not purists, taking whatever they found interesting and useful for their music).

― jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 01:20 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's an insult to Charlie Feathers, Sam Phillips et al to say they were "trying at blues and failing." I wouldn't attribute the same kind of miraculous foresight to Phillips that he himself does, but still, I think they rather knew what they were doing.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 04:28 (twenty-three years ago)

also, knowing Dickinson's m.o., I think he was probably making an off the cuff joke not meant to be taken as the Gospel according to Jim.

― jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 07:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Hasil Adkins is utterly amazing! Raw, primal, pure energy & abandon captured in the grooves. Out To Hunch is (probably) the best of the many collections out there, and the songs date back to the '50s in some cases. It certainly could be argued that Haze is nuts. WHen he played in Atlanta at The Point (circa 1987)he was reported to have made a meal out of raw hamburger & peppermint schnapps. He also got in a brief fight with an audience member on the way to the stage. It was Norton Records, and the related Kicks 'zine, as well as a cover of Adkins' "She Said" by the Cramps, that renewed interest in Hasil, and in the late '80s he even recorded some new material for Norton on The Wild Man (Norton 203) and on a live release called Look At That Caveman Go. Rock & Roll Tonight, He Said, and Chicken Walk are all excellent collections of Adkins' recordings, though they all overlap with Out To Hunch on a track or two. Norton issued 2 other collections that I recall: Peanut Butter Rock & Roll (great!) and a set of ballads called Moon Over Madison (or something similar) which I have never heard. Which of these are available on CD (or at all) these days, I cannot say...

― John Bullabaugh, Saturday, 8 March 2003 04:16 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

I sincerely believe the Adkins collection that would win the heart of amtst is Moon over Madison.

― be home by 11 (orion), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 01:02 (nineteen years ago)

I wouldn't hesitate to put "No More Hot Dogs" on a crush tape for any girl I even halfway liked. Even if it was only kinda-sorta halfway.

― Adam Beales (Pye Poudre), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 01:11 (nineteen years ago)

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