Still hanging out with producer
Jimmy Bowen
,
Hank Williams, Jr.
's
The Pressure Is On
continued his streak of winners that began back in the 1970s with
Hank Williams, Jr. & Friends
.
Williams
concentrated more on his songwriting here and nailed two of his most famous compositions, both of which were Top Five singles that flew in the face of a Nash Vegas establishment that, while it had co-opted the
outlaw
movement (
Mel Tillis
released an album called
I'm an Outlaw
-- yeah, right) couldn't quite get with
, despite the fact that he sold tons of records and had a host of young fans the Music Row think tanks should have been happy to cultivate. But like
Steve Earle
wasn't interested in any sort of compromise; he'd had enough during his lifetime. The two tracks that garnered the most airplay and notice from this set are
"A Country Boy Can Survive,"
its own redneck anthem of rugged individualism during the
Reagan
years, and
"All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down,"
a tale of the aging and settling of the
generation from
Waylon
to
Kristofferson
Willie
. (Funny,
David Allan Coe
isn't mentioned.) But there are other amazing tracks here as well: the title track with its bluesy front end and in-the-dark shadow vocal; the silly but poignant, rocking
bluegrass
stomper
"The Coalition to Ban Coalitions"
; the metaphorically astute
"Weatherman"
; and
"I Don't Care if Tomorrow Never Comes."
In addition, the cover of
Jimmie Driftwood
"Tennessee Stud"
here rivals
Johnny Cash
's version more than a decade later, and the
Emerson
/
rocker
"Ramblin' in My Shoes"
is tougher than leather and sharper than a Buck knife. It's another
rock & roll
country
album from
, and a good one to boot. The man is on a roll. ~ Thom Jurek