Although he could never be expected to equal the legendary status accorded his father, Hank Williams Jr. has made a respectable place for himself in country music on the strength of his oft-outrageous lyrical wit and polished acoustic sound.
On his latest set, "Almeria Club," the man best known to many as the singer of the "Monday Night Football" theme continues to stake out his own territory with an engaging feast of genre-crossing flavors that run the gamut from saucy to sober.
Named for the rickety old former schoolhouse in which much of it was recorded, the set brims with a passion exemplified by the feisty backdrop that informs the silly but smoking blues of "Last Pork Chop."
Williams' exercises in attitude are not hampered by any sense of political correctness whatsoever, which would be made clear by his enlisting of Kid Rock for background vocals on the trifling gimmickry of "The 'F' Word," even if the buoyant honky-tonk naughtiness of "Big Top Women" happened to be about ladies at the circus (which, by the way, it does not).
The spirited nature of the sessions is captured in the brief but infectious "Almeria Jam" and the rollicking, banjo-paced match-up with Nickel Creek that closes the ebullient "Outdoor Lovin' Man."
Williams' manner comes off as cartoonish and stiff when he tries to twist contemporary vernacular in "X-Treme Country," but his sober delivery of the organ-laced gospel tribute "Cross on the Highway" is compelling.
Although he typically takes old-school approaches, such as the rockabilly blues at the heart of "Go Girl Go," his expert handling of the material ensures he almost always manages to sound modern.
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