Strong Stuff

Last updated
Strong Stuff
StrongStuff.jpg
Studio album by
Hank Williams Jr.
ReleasedFebruary 1983 (1983-02)
Genre Southern rock [1]
Length36:44
Label Elektra/Curb
Producer Jimmy Bowen
Hank Williams Jr.
Hank Williams Jr. chronology
Hank Williams Jr.'s Greatest Hits
(1982)		Strong Stuff
(1983)		 Man of Steel
(1983)
Singles from Strong Stuff
  1. "Gonna Go Huntin' Tonight"
    Released: January 10, 1983
  2. "Leave Them Boys Alone"
    Released: May 1983

Strong Stuff is a studio album by American country music artist Hank Williams Jr.. It was released by Elektra/Curb Records in February 1983. "Gonna Go Huntin' Tonight" and "Leave Them Boys Alone" were released as singles. The album peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart [2] and has been certified Gold by the RIAA. [3]

Country music, also known as country and western, and hillbilly music, is a genre of popular music that originated in the southern United States in the early 1920s. It takes its roots from genres such as American folk music and blues.

Hank Williams Jr. American singer-songwriter and musician

Randall Hank Williams, known professionally as Hank Williams Jr., or alternatively as “Bocephus,” is an American southern rock singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of Southern rock, blues, and. He is the son of country music singer Hank Williams and the father of Hank Williams III, Holly Williams, Hilary Williams, Sam Williams and Katie Williams.

Elektra Records American record label

Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk music and rock music between the 1950s and 1970s. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived as an imprint of Atlantic in 2009. As of October 2018, Elektra was detached from the Atlantic Records umbrella and reorganized into Elektra Music Group, once again operating as an independently-managed frontline label of Warner Music.

Contents

Music

The music of Strong Stuff is predominately Southern rock, such as the cover of ZZ Top's John Lee Hooker-esque song "La Grange". [1]

Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals. Although the origin of the term Southern rock is unknown, "many people feel that these important contributors to the development of rock and roll have been minimized in rock's history."

ZZ Top American rock band

ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The band has, since 1970, consisted of vocalist/guitarist Billy Gibbons, bassist/vocalist Dusty Hill, and drummer Frank Beard. "As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers", according to critic Michael "Cub" Koda. "Gibbons is one of America's finest blues guitarists working in the arena rock idiom [...] while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support."

John Lee Hooker American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist

John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often incorporated other elements, including talking blues and early North Mississippi Hill country blues. He developed his own driving-rhythm boogie style, distinct from the 1930s–1940s piano-derived boogie-woogie.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [1]

While he praised the closing cut ("In this stately ballad about a lover's struggle with drugs, Hank's baritone coos, breaks, and flutters like a wounded butterfly as spare accompaniment by piano, harmonica and guitar pushes but never intrudes"), Lee Ballinger of Record gave the album an overall negative review. He was especially critical of "A Whole Lot of Hank", describing it as "a recitation of unconnected cliches ... carried bumpily along by a plodding instrumental track". He found some of the other songs overly similar to "A Whole Lot of Hank", and referred to "Leave Them Boys Alone" as "the obligatory song about other Southern musicians". [4]

Track listing

  1. "Gonna Go Huntin' Tonight" (Hank Williams Jr.) – 2:36
  2. "La Grange" (Frank Beard, Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill) – 5:21
  3. "A Whole Lot of Hank" ("Wild" Bill Emerson, Jody Emerson, Williams) – 2:55
  4. "Made in the Shade" (Ronnie Van Zant) – 4:35
  5. "Leave Them Boys Alone" (Dean Dillon, Gary Stewart, Tanya Tucker, Williams) – 3:36
  6. "The Girl on the Front Row at Fort Worth" (Williams) – 2:38
  7. "The Homecoming Queen" (Williams) – 4:22
  8. "Blue Jean Blues" (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) – 4:07
  9. "Twodot Montana" (Williams) – 2:39
  10. "In the Arms of Cocaine" (Flash Gordon, Buzz Rabin, Hank Williams, Jr.) – 4:08

Personnel

Acoustic guitar type of guitar

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that produces sound acoustically by transmitting the vibration of the strings to the air—as opposed to relying on electronic amplification (see electric guitar). The sound waves from the strings of an acoustic guitar resonate through the guitar's body, creating sound. This typically involves the use of a sound board and a sound box to strengthen the vibrations of the strings. In standard tuning the guitar's six strings are tuned (low to high) E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4.

David Paul Briggs is an American keyboardist, record producer, arranger, composer and studio owner. Briggs is one of an elite core of Nashville studio musicians known as "the Nashville Cats" and has been featured in a major exhibition by the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2015. He played his first recording session at the age of 14 and has gone on to add keyboards to a plethora of pop, rock, and country artists, as well as recording hundreds of corporate commercials.

Keyboard instrument class of musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital pianos. Other keyboard instruments include celestas, which are struck idiophones operated by a keyboard, and carillons, which are usually housed in bell towers or belfries of churches or municipal buildings.

Chart performance

Chart (1983)Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums7
U.S. Billboard 20064

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Strong Stuff review". Allmusic . Retrieved 16 February 2011.
  2. ↑ "Strong Stuff Charts". Allmusic . Retrieved 16 February 2011.
  3. ↑ RIAA - Gold & Platinum
  4. ↑ Ballinger, Lee (June 1983). "Strong Stuff review". Record. 2 (8): 25.
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