| Straight to Hell | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Hank Williams III | ||||
| Released | February 28, 2006 | |||
| Recorded | December 2004—January 2005 | |||
| Genre | Neotraditional country Outlaw country |
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| Length | 1:27:56 | |||
| Label | Bruc | |||
| Producer | Hank III Joe Buck Andy Gibson |
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| Hank Williams III chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | link |
| Mxdwn.com | (very favorable) link |
Straight to Hell is the third studio album by outlaw country/punk artist Hank Williams III. It was Williams' first release since settling a contract dispute with Curb Records and was one of the first releases on Curb's Bruc Records imprint. It was also the first ever country music release to merit both a parental advisory sticker on the package and a clean version of the album for more conservative retail outlets like Wal-Mart, due to language more suited to Williams' punk rock side and some repeated drug and alcohol references. On his website, Williams encourages fans to support independent record outlets that are more willing to stock the uncensored version of the album[1].
Espousing the Do-it-yourself (DIY) ethic more associated with punk rock, Williams recorded the double album at what was referred to in the liner notes as "a house with a good wooden room in East Nashville" (recently revealed to be the house III's steel player, Andy Gibson, was living in at the time[1]) with a $400 Korg D 1600 digital workstation, handling producing and engineering duties along with his longtime Damn Band members JoeBuck and Andy Gibson, although instead of a "Produced and Engineered by..." credit, the Williams/Buck/Gibson triad was instead credited with "Settin' up the mics, turnin' the knobs and recording this record". The results would inspire Williams to state that every musician should own their own workstation in order to take full control of their own music.
The first disc features Williams and his Damn Band along with a handful of professional guest musicians, and includes several tracks that Williams had been performing for years in his live show, including the infamous anti-pop-country anthem "Dick In Dixie" (better known to longtime Williams fans as "Let's Put The Dick Back In Dixie And The Cunt Back In Country", and omitted from the clean version of the album entirely). Also notable on the album is "Not Everybody Likes Us", where Williams openly insults Kid Rock, pointing out that neither Rock's association with Williams's father, Hank Williams Jr., nor Rock's being a "Yankee" would ever make him "the son of Hank".
The second disc features a rawer Williams performing the song "Louisiana Stripes" (described by one reviewer as "a worthy successor to Johnny Cash's 'Folsom Prison Blues'"[2]), as well as a "hidden" 42-minute track featuring a medley of other Williams compositions along with covers of his grandfather's "I Could Never Be Ashamed Of You", Cheech & Chong's "Up In Smoke" and Wayne Hancock's "Take My Pain", all linked with various soundbites and sound effects such as voice mail messages, passing trains, runaway horses, a creek, a funeral, pig snorts, backmasking and bong hits.
Fans who bought the album in participating independent record stores were given a free 12" picture disc that included the hidden track from disc two, split into two parts.
Contents |
| Disc one | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Satan Is Real / Straight to Hell (Medley)" | Charlie Louvin, Ira Louvin / Hank Williams III | 3:08 | ||||||
| 2. | "Thrown Out of the Bar" | Hank Williams III | 2:07 | ||||||
| 3. | "Things You Do to Me" | Hank Williams III | 2:22 | ||||||
| 4. | "Country Heroes" | Hank Williams III | 3:29 | ||||||
| 5. | "D. Ray White" | Hank Williams III | 3:47 | ||||||
| 6. | "Low Down" | Hank Williams III | 3:24 | ||||||
| 7. | "Pills I Took" | Wyatt G. Hellickson | 2:31 | ||||||
| 8. | "Smoke & Wine" | Hank Williams III | 2:36 | ||||||
| 9. | "My Drinkin' Problem" | Randy Howard | 2:42 | ||||||
| 10. | "Crazed Country Rebel" | Hank Williams III | 3:09 | ||||||
| 11. | "Dick in Dixie" | Hank Williams III | 2:37 | ||||||
| 12. | "Not Everybody Likes Us" | Hank Williams III | 4:30 | ||||||
| 13. | "Angel of Sin" | Hank Williams III | 6:07 | ||||||
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Total length:
|
40:29 | ||||||||
| Disc two | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Louisiana Stripes" | Hank Williams III | 3:28 | ||||||
| Medley | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 2. | "I Could Never Be Ashamed of You" | Hank Williams | 42:00 | ||||||
| 3. | "Smoke & Wine (Slowed Down Version)" | Hank Williams III | |||||||
| 4. | "Alone & Dying" | Hank Williams III | |||||||
| 5. | "On My Own" | Hank Williams III | |||||||
| 6. | "Back by My Side" | Hank Williams III | |||||||
| 7. | "Take My Pain" | Wayne Hancock | |||||||
| 8. | "What's His Name" | Hank Williams III | |||||||
| 9. | "Down in Houston" | Hank Williams III | |||||||
| 10. | "Up in Smoke" | Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong | |||||||
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Total length:
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45:28 | ||||||||
Double vinyl Gate fold was also released for this album, it contains slightly different art-work than the cd release and it also notes the 42 miniute hidden track from disc two, but doesn't contain Louisiana Stripes as on the cd release.
| Chart (2006) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums | 17 |
| U.S. Billboard 200 | 73 |
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