OK, I agree that Hank Williams Jr. shouldn’t have been taking potshots at “queer guitar pickers” during his Sunday show in Fort Worth. But the DMN‘s Thor Christensen is flat wrong writing off Hank’s anti-Obama political rant as mere narrow-mindedness. Sure, the country singer’s a profane, hell-raising redneck–he’d wear the tag proudly, I bet–but his rowdy conservative take on the country’s direction is a legitimate part of the political conversation. Even if it offends progressive city slickers.
Then again, Thor needs to fine-tune his politics-and-country-music understanding in general. He writes, for example, that Merle Haggard is “almost as conservative” as Hank, which ain’t exactly true. The ever-evolving Hag championed Hillary Clinton in ’08. And he has had nice things to say lately about the president. As part of his homework, Thor might want to check out the song “Guns and Religion” by Garland’s great Austin Cunningham. It’s a more artful take on Hank’s basic rural view, recorded awhile ago.
