POP MUSIC REVIEW : Despite His Country Pedigree, Hank Williams Jr. Rocks Along

Hank Williams Jr. really pulled one over on everybody when he got himself named Entertainer of the Year by two major country music organizations last year. You see, ol’ Bocephus, despite his name and 55 albums that have been marketed as country, isn’t really a country performer at all.

What Williams does best is rock. Not country-rock or rockabilly. Straightforward, Southern-fried boogie rock a la Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top. When he does venture into pure country territory, truth is the results are pretty mediocre--no matter what his pedigree.

That wasn’t much of a problem Wednesday night at the Universal Amphitheatre, where Williams and his seven-piece Bama Band rocked and rolled for the better part of a two-hour-plus show on the first of a two-night stand. At times--notably a stretch of fired-up, loosy-goosy versions of the likes of Skynyrd’s “Gimme Three Steps,” Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” and George Thorogood’s “I Really Like Girls”--Williams seemed closer in spirit to rock’s sloppy but lovable Replacements than to any of your standard country entertainers like the Judds or Randy Travis.

Like the Replacements, it seemed as if Williams’ choice of material was strictly spur-of-the-moment, rehearsed or not (though choreographed lighting spoiled the effect a couple times). And when Hank slowed things down for a lengthy set of solo acoustic numbers, he focused very neatly on the folk-blues styles that make up country’s roots, but are too often shunned by modern country performers.

What’s more, Williams only invoked his country icon daddy’s name a couple dozen times--not even half as many times as he boasted about himself! But then, any one who can put on shows like this year after year has a right to boast.