Evil Things
Texas honky-tonker James Hand sinks his quaveringHank Williams-style yowl into songs of broken hearts, busted dreams, and beer joints where "happy hour" is a long way from happy. What sets him apart from all the other would-be Hanks, though, is the depth of gloom in his songs and the desperate intensity of his voice. In Hand's dark night of the soul, even the uptempo numbers have a hangdog despondency to them that speaks of sleepless nights and hours of self-destructive torment. This is modern-day working-class Texas country that makes efforts by fresh-faced singer-songwriters seem like fabric-softener commercials. It's raw, searing, pitch-black stuff, coming to you direct from some haunted honky-tonk Hades in the Lone Star State.--Jerry Renshaw