Hasil Adkins

Hasil Adkins was a one of a kind rockabilly lunatic whose life and music were bizarre enough that if they had been a work of fiction, no one with any sense would have ever believed it. A frantic one-man band who bashed out ultra-crude rock & roll tunes about sex, chicken, and decapitation into a wheezing reel-to-reel tape machine in a West Virginia shack, Adkins spent most of his life making music in utter obscurity until he was discovered in the 1980s and became a cult favorite in the last two decades of his life.

Hasil Adkins was born to a poor family in Madison, WV, in 1939. Adkins developed a passion for music from listening to the radio as a boy; one day, after hearing a Hank Williams record, Adkins struck upon the notion that since no one else was credited, Williams must have played all the instruments himself, and while in time he learned that wasn't the case, he had already begun teaching himself to perform as a one-man band, using foot pedals to play the drums while using his hands to rock out on guitar. While Adkins' roots were in country music, when rock & roll hit in the mid-'50s, he took to it like a duck to water, and after putting together a primitive home-recording setup, he began committing his own rockabilly songs to tape.

However, it soon became obvious that Adkins' lyrical perspective wasn't what most folks were accustomed to -- he wrote a number of songs about a lascivious but nonexistent dance craze called "the Hunch," recorded another tune about eating peanut butter on the moon, and in one of his best-known songs, "She Said," he compared the woman of his affections to "a dying can of that commodity meat." While a few small regional labels released singles by Hasil in the late '50s and early '60s, and he headed to California in search of stardom, the world wasn't ready for his crazed vision, and Adkins ended up back in Madison, continuing to make his music in local honky tonks and for the benefit of his tape recorder.

As the '60s turned into the '70s, Adkins began to alternate rockabilly with country weepers, though even his more placid material still bore his emotionally charged trademark. Adkins self-released several country sides in the 1970s, and as was his habit he always mailed a copy of each record to the sitting president of the United States; as a result, Hasil actually received a thank-you letter from Richard M. Nixon.

In the late '70s, Billy Miller and Miriam Linna -- co-editors of Kicks magazine, members of the bands the Zantees and the A-Bones, and historians of various forms of raw, untamed music -- discovered a copy of Adkins' rare "She Said" single, and were immediately struck by its one of a kind sound and intensity. (Their enthusiasm was shared by Lux Interior and Poison Ivy of the Cramps, who cut "She Said" as the B-side of a single in 1981.) Miller and Linna tracked down Adkins, and discovered there was a lot more musical insanity where that 45 came from; they were enthusiastic enough to compile an album's worth of Hasil's home recordings from the 1950s and '60s, and 1986's Out to Hunch became the first album from their new record label, Norton Records. Featuring "She Said," "The Hunch," and three different songs about gals having their heads chopped off, Out to Hunch became an underground success, and a year later Miller and Linna brought Hasil to New York City to play a few live shows and record his first session in a proper studio, which became the album The Wild Man.

Adkins was a now a bona fide cult hero, and began touring regularly and releasing further albums, though his prodigious consumption of alcohol, coffee, and cigarettes (as well as his obsessive fondness for red meat) did little to make the middle-aged rocker a stable and reliable presence; stories of crazed shows, tossed guitars, and boozy antics loom large in the Adkins legend, as do tales of his primitive existence in West Virginia, where he was said to go fishing while watching Wheel of Fortune on TV through the magic of extension cords. In the early '90s, Adkins signed a deal with I.R.S. Records, but the label folded before they could release the album he made for them; Hasil had a more positive experience with the Mississippi blues label Fat Possum, which not only recorded and released 1999's What the Hell Was I Thinking?, but put Adkins on the road as part of a package tour with T-Model Ford and Elmo Williams.

In 2000, Hasil returned to Norton with the release of Poultry in Motion, which compiled six new recordings with eight vintage tracks, all of which concerned Hasil's favorite dish, chicken. Sadly, these proved to be the last new Hasil Adkins recordings released in his lifetime; the wild man was found dead in his Madison home on April 26, 2005. The compilation Best of the Haze followed in 2006.

from Wikipedia:

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Hasil Adkins (pronounced "Hassle," not "Haysil") (April 29, 1937 – April 25, 2005) was an Appalachian country, rock and roll, and blues musician, though he was frequently considered rockabilly and sometimes primitive jazz. He generally performed as a one-man band, playing guitar and drums at the same time.

Adkins is considered one of the pioneers of the psychobilly genre.

Early life

Adkins was born in Boone County, West Virginia, where he lived his entire life. Although many sources list 1937 as his year of birth, his official website states that the year of his birth is actually unknown, citing "a missing family Bible" that lists his birth as "April 29, 193?." He was the youngest of 10 children, raised in a tarpaper shack on property rented from a local coal company. Adkins was both severely depressed and hyperactive as a child. Adkins reportedly attended four days of school in total and devoted the vast majority of his energy to becoming a musician. For supplemental income, he occasionally repaired and sold items like cars or washing machines.

Musical career

Nicknamed "The Haze," Adkins claimed a repertoire of over 9,000 songs, including over 7,000 original compositions (though it has been said he has been known to have grossly exaggerated these figures), recorded scores of small, micro-label 45s, and is responsible for the birth of Norton Records, Psychobilly, and a dance called "The Hunch".

He was well known for shrieking certain catchphrases, such as "hot dogs," "I want your head," "Gimme that commodity meat", and "AaaaaaaaaaaaaHeeeeeeeeeeee-Wooo!!!!"

Recurring themes in Adkins' work include love, heartbreak, police, death, decapitation, hot dogs, aliens, and chicken. Adkins often noted in interviews that his primary heroes and influences were Hank Williams Sr., Jimmie Rodgers, Little Richard, and Col. Harlan Sanders, the inventor of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Some of his best-known songs are "She Said," "No More Hot Dogs," "My Blue Star," "The Hunch," "Beautiful Hills," "We Got A Date," "Chicken Walk", and "Sally Weedy Waddy Woody Wally."

Adkins recorded an entire album devoted to chicken entitled Poultry in Motion that included such songs as "Chicken Run," "Chicken Hop," "Chicken Flop," "Chicken Wobble," and "Chicken On The Bone."

In addition to making many albums and CDs, Adkins also appeared in several movies and television shows.

Adkins was also the subject of the Julien Nitzberg documentary The Wild World Of Hasil Adkins, distributed by Appalshop.

Later years and death

After the mid-1990s, Adkins began performing less often, though he retained his popularity with music critics and other celebrants of outsider music, such as Joe Coleman and John Zorn. Hasil Adkins had a strong influence on the band The Cramps, as well as the Flat Duo Jets, who have recorded him. All three bands have played various shows together in different combinations. Adkins' cult status is kept alive to the present day by the growing appreciation of, and demand for, outsider music and primitive rock and roll.

Hasil Adkins made an appearance in the cult film Die You Zombie Bastards! as himself.

On April 15, 2005, Adkins was deliberately run over in his front yard by a teenager on an ATV. The perpetrator was apprehended by police (after running over another person a short distance down the road from Adkins' house), and Adkins identified him in a picture the police showed him. Ten days later, on April 25, Adkins was found dead in his home.

Partial discography

CD releases

Out to Hunch, Norton Records.The Wild Man, Norton Records.Peanut Butter Rock and Roll, Norton Records.Moon Over Madison, Norton Records.Chicken Walk, Dee Jay Records (Germany).Look at that Caveman Go!, Norton Records.Live in Chicago, Pravda Records.Achy Breaky Ha Ha Ha, Norton Records.Drinkin My Life Away, Shake It RecordsWhat the Hell was I thinking, Fat Possum Records.Poultry in Motion, Norton Records.Night Life, Creeps Records.

LP releases

White Light/White Meat, Norton Records.Night Life, Hog Maw Records