Unknown Hinson Visits the Hitone

Some have called him a "hillbilly vampire," others claim he's a dangerous ex-con, while still others insist he's a brilliant Andy Kaufman-esque performance artist. But ask Unknown Hinson for a bit of honest self-assessment, and he'll tell you without hesitation: "I'm the King of Country-Western Troubadours. I'm every womern's dream and ever jealous husband's nightmare, and I don't take no mess."

Hinson is an unusual country singer, to be sure. To see him in concert is to witness a strange hybrid of a Nudie-suit wearing honky-tonk hero and a Hammer horror film character who blends the macabre theatrics of Screamin' Jay Hawkins with the cornpone comedy of "Hee-Haw."

Hinson exists in a world all his own, and one that has a unique language. In Hinson-speak -- a growling, North Carolina mountain twang -- women are "womerns" (yep, there's an "r" between the "e" and the "n"; and, as it transpires, he likes pretty womerns a whole lot). He warns against the evils of "rawk" music and illegally downloading his songs off the "interstate," while peppering his conversation with references to his "chart-topping sideburns" and "chart-topping hair."

If you believe his official bio, Unknown Hinson is actually his given name ("it says right there on my birth certificate -- Mama: Miss Hinson. Daddy: Unknown."). Abandoned by his mother as a child in the '50s, Hinson ran off to join the circus, where he became a sideshow performer capable of amazing feats, including lifting 25-pound weights with his tongue. Hinson also began showing a penchant for penning remarkable country songs. But his fledgling musical career was cut short in 1963, when Hinson was accused of a number of horrific crimes -- the charges included murder (three counts), armed robbery (two counts), 19 paternity suits, grand larceny, assault with a deadly weapon (28 counts), spousal abuse (he was never married), grave robbing, vampirism, 54 traffic violations including hit and run, DWI, reckless driving, speeding, expired plates and driving without a license, and copyright infringement. Hinson spent 30 years in the Illinois State Penitentiary, where he continued to hone his songwriting and plot his eventual comeback. He was finally freed in 1993 after the most serious charges were overturned, and he began to reclaim his musical legacy with a series of albums like 1999's 21 Chart-Toppers and 2000's The Future is Unknown.

Though he refuses to admit it, that very elaborate backstory is merely a well-spun yarn. In truth, Hinson is the alter-ego of a talented Charlotte-area musician and guitar teacher named Danny Baker. Though he never breaks character these days, in the past Baker has said that Unknown Hinson was born as a kind of reaction to and imitation of the more unhinged patrons he encountered while playing the Southeastern bar and honky-tonk circuit. A Dadaist satire of Southern masculinity and country music convention, Baker's portrayal takes the redneck stereotype to thoroughly absurdist extremes, adding some camp goth-horror elements into the mix for good measure.

Whatever the truth of his origins, Unknown Hinson first turned up on the public radar in the early '90s, as the titular star of a Charlotte cable access program called "The Unknown Hinson Show." "It was a half-hour show of what they call vignettes, that followed a day in the life of Unknown Hinson," he says, "and all them episodes was peppered with my music."

Hinson's music proved to be the real topper, as he created a compelling catalogue of note-perfect old-school country songs laced with the kind of lyrics that made David Allan Coe's stark trailer-park tales seem quaint by comparison. These include Hinson classics like "I Ain't Afraid of Your Husband," "Peace, Love and Hard Liquor" and "Pregnant Again."

"All my songs come from my real life experience. Or at least things I've seen with my chart-topping eyes," says Hinson. "You got to write what you know, 'cause if you don't people will see through it."

Over the years, Hinson's music has been embraced by rock and roll fans, and he occasionally plays the odd rock cover in his set ("I do some songs by that Jimi Hendrix feller and them Who," he says), but he's long been outspoken in his disdain for the genre. "My first love in life is country-western music. And I don't mean country, I mean country-western," says Hinson. "But I do play some rawk for the young folks during my shows. But I like to think of it as a disclaimer to show them that it don't take no talent to make that racket. Country-western -- now that takes talent! And, of course, the pretty womerns likes the rawk, too, so I do it to please them. I don't care if they get the message or not -- I'll do anything for a good-looking womerns."

Despite his disdain for the music, a number of rockers are avowed Unknown Hinson fans, including the Reverend Horton Heat and Hank Williams III, who've both taken Hinson out on tour (Williams even has Hinson's face tattooed on his bicep), while the Rolling Stones invited Hinson onto their stage as well.

"Yep, The Rolling Stones is fans of mine. And they know about my stand on rawk," says Hinson. "They invited me to come and participate in their soundcheck and test out the guitars before they played the Charlotte Bobcats arena. Even though they play the rawk, they's some real nice fellers."

Back in 2002, while Hinson was temporarily living in Hollywood and performing locally, he picked up a coterie of entertainment industry fans, that includes "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening (who invited him to play at the prestigious All Tomorrow's Parties festival in L.A.) as well as screen stars Tim Robbins and Billy Bob Thornton, whose then-wife Angelina Jolie hired Hinson to play a birthday party for the actor.

It was also during his stay in L.A. that rumors about Hinson being a vampire began to resurface. "When we played shows a lot of them gothic types -- gals that wears all that black make-up, and them real pale-looking fellers -- they would come and see me. I guess it got around somehow that I was a vampire 'cause I had a Bela Lugosi-looking head of hair and they said I had vampire fangs," says Hinson. "Well, I ain't got no fangs -- what I got is a slight dental affliction. But I don't drink no blood. Hell, I ain't never sucked nobody, I swear. I don't do that mess."

Having cut several records for indie label Uniphone, Hinson's profile was high enough that he was signed to Capitol records, who released an EP called Rock 'n' Roll Straight From Hell in 2002 and a revamped version of The Future is Unknown in 2004.

Hinson returned to the studio last year to cut a new album for the fledgling Coffin Case record label. Coffin Case -- a North Hollywood-based company that manufactures guitar cases shaped like coffins -- brought Hinson on board as the flagship artist for the its new recording imprint.

Hinson's debut for the label, Target Practice, was released last May. Like its predecessors, it's an unholy and uproariously funny mix of classic country sounds and twisted narratives. The disc also finds Hinson expanding his stylistic palette with numbers like the crooning piano ballad "Ugly Things" (sample lyric: "You gave the dog my supper/You had sex with my brother/You've done some ugly things/For such a pretty girl").

"I like to think of each record as a stage or a phase. And the way it sounds depends on what mood I'm in," says Hinson. "So they's some rawk on there and some other stuff, but it's mostly country-western."

In the last couple of years, Hinson has found another creative outlet as a voice-over artist. In 2005, he began work on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim series, "Squidbillies" -- a show about a family of inbred squids and their adventures in Georgia. Hinson voices the lead character and clan patriarch Early Cuyler.

The third season premiere of "Squidbillies" is slated for later in the year, while the first will be out on DVD in the summer. (Old episodes air Jan. 7, 21 and 28 at 9:45 p.m. and repeats Sunday late-night/early Monday at 1:45 a.m.)

Hinson also plans to release the entire run of his early '90s cable access program, "The Unknown Hinson Show," on DVD in the spring.

Meantime, Hinson continues to tour heavily -- he's currently in the midst of a stretch of dates, which will include his long-delayed Memphis debut at the Hi-Tone this Friday.

"I was originally scheduled to play Memphis in April of 2003, but my hand got severely injured," says Hinson. "I was in a knife fight. Well, I weren't armed but I was cut by a feller at an all-night cafe who was. He nearly severed the radial nerve in my left hand, which is my fretting hand. It laid me up for a little over three months. But one more centimeter and I'd never been able to pick guitar again."

Never one to rest on his laurels, Hinson is already writing material for his next album. "Nobody lives forever, so every day you live, you gotta make some hay," says Hinson. "Aside from sitting around drinkin' and chasin' womerns, you gotta accomplish something. You got to keep putting it out there."

-- Bob Mehr

Originally from The Commercial Appeal

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