Hank Williams III: Risin' Outlaw

Like the members of Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown, and many other alt-country bands, Hank Williams III got his start playing punk music. Regardless of what drove other artists from punk to country, it's hard to think anything but destiny brought Williams into the fold. Beyond the name, Williams looks eerily like his famous grandfather, and on quite a few moments of Risin' Outlaw, he sounds like him, too. Williams' solo debut—after Three Hanks: Men With Broken Hearts, a "collaboration" with his living father, Hank Jr., and the long-gone Hank Sr.—Risin' Outlaw plays to that powerful family resemblance. Backed by spare (by Nashville standards) arrangements, Williams sings and occasionally yodels his way through a selection of self-penned originals, three Wayne Hancock songs, and some well-chosen vintage covers (though none by family members). There's not a trace of punk left in Williams' sound, but the attitude and lines like, "I got a tattoo at a tender age," suggest that he hasn't had trouble finding common ground since making the switch. It's the right attitude for Hank III, as the album cover dubs him: part outlaw country, part roots revivalist. The record itself is more promising than eye-opening, a sturdy, not-quite-extraordinary debut with several high points (particularly the Hancock covers) and hardly any low ones. If Risin' Outlaw is ultimately more about potential than anything else, the potential it suggests is pretty special.