Hick’ry Hawkins & Sidemeat – Anarky, Tennessee!
The self-proclaimed “punkabilly” king of Columbia, South Carolina, Hick’ry Hawkins plays an inbred shotgun marriage of traditional country swing and simple, old-fashioned punk rock — what might result from a WWF cage match featuring Buck Owens and Joey Ramone. Hick’ry trades in trailer-park tall tales and drive-in drama, and he’s so serious about it that even his ridiculous Southern accent comes across as genuinely felt, if not wholly realistic.
Hawkins’ songs are corny cliches with a redneck twist, like “Alligator Britches”, a slow two-step exercise in leather-clad idolatry — “She’s got Alligator britches, but she sure ain’t no reptile/You think you been snakebitten every time you see her smile.” “Rasslin” is country for Rick Flair fanatics. It name-checks every major performer in that most vaunted of white trash sports in two fast and furious minutes.
Hick’ry’s band, Sidemeat, is just bass and drums, played by Ugly Chick and Cracker Ray, respectively. They provide amiably sloppy and spirited accompaniment to his cracked vocals and offhand guitar licks, and get a chance to shine on their own with a bizarrely titled 60-second instrumental that ends the disc, “I Got Me An 8 Piece Milk Snack Set”.
The most transcendent moment on this short CD is the title track, which rewrites the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy In The U.K.” and the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop” into a moonshiner’s dream of a medley. It’s an anthem of sorts for the anti-country types, with the opening call to arms, “Well I am a country fan/But I ain’t no Nashville Man/You want to know where’s the place to be/You go down south and follow me/You’ll see that’s Anarky, Tennessee.”
Hick’ry Hawkins & Sidemeat are an irreverent belch into both the commercial Nashville establishment and the hipper-than-thou indie-rock contingent, with enough gall, living in the Town That Hootie Built, to plug their upcoming disc, Never Mind The Blowfish, Here’s Hick’ry Hawkins & Sidemeat, in the liner notes to this release.