HANK JR. VERSATILE AND UNDERRATED
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Before disappearing in a puff of smoke Friday night, Hank Williams Jr. took a capacity Universal Amphitheatre crowd on a two-hour tour through every musical form that ever originated south of the Smith & Wesson Line: a six-pack of styles-within-styles of country and blues, spanning everything from Hank’s own people-are-wickedly-funny hits to four selections from his famous father’s songbook; a couple double shots of jazz and soul highlighted by a delicate, acoustic reading of Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin,’ ” and three-four pickup truckloads of fiery, duel-guitar rockers a la Lynyrd Skynyrd, including Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”
Sang the truth out of this stuff, too. Especially in the 45-minute solo segment between the shotgun boogie numbers that bookended the show (the first of two nights at the Amphitheatre). Undeniably talented, genuinely humorous and--for a man who can sell 12,000 tickets and an unbelievable amount of alcohol in one weekend in this cheesy burg--hugely underrated.
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