The lyric “American by birth and Southern by the Grace of God, means that everything I do; I do it right” kicks off the first and title track on Wheeler Walker Jr’s Redneck Shit. Released on February 12th of this year, 2016, via PornHub.com, the album is the first album on the Billboard Country Charts with an expletive in the title. The tracks are reminiscent of Ween’s 12 Country Golden Greats and Wheeler takes the genre to the next level.
The nome de plume on Wheeler Walker Jr’s Biography page is Colonel John Booker Montague. The author immediately admits that his opinion of the artist is biased as he and Wheeler have been friends for nearly 30 years. However, he tells us the story of WWJ’s upbringing and rise to Country Music Greatness. Wheeler’s Wikipedia page states that he was born and raised in Lexington. While the author went away to University of Kentucky to study English, Wheeler instead dropped out of high school and moved to Nashville in 1998. There he apparently befriended country artists like Paisley, Shelton, and Urban. Capitol Records signed him after seeing him perform at the Bluebird Cafe. When he refused to censor his songs, the label dropped him. This would continue to happen with other labels. That is, until Wheeler decided to himself pay for Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson) to produce for him and for Nashville based entertainment company Thirty Tigers to distribute the album. Possibly my favorite quote from this bio is this from WWJ; “If the album don’t work, fuck ‘em. Not a big deal. I’ll just move back to my parents’ old place in Kentucky. Be one of those drunk Kentucky shut-ins. You know what they say about playin’ guitars and orgasms: you can do ‘em both by yourself.”
His music may seem like a joke; with tracks like “Eatin’ Pussy and Kickin’ Ass” and “Better off Beatin’ Off”, that highlight the finer points of the blue collar lifestyle. However, it’s real and raw country music that outlaws like Waylon and Merle would be proud of. Don’t take no shit from nobody Wheels. Don’t take no shit from nobody.
Now on this evening Thursday, September 29th the soon to be Kentucky Legend Wheeler Walker Jr. will bless the stage at one of our favorite Lexington venues The Burl. Show starts at 8:30 and tickets are $15 here.
