Hunch That Thing

Five years ago, tuesday the 26th of April 2005 was a sad day. It was the day Hasil Adkins was found dead at his West-Virginian home. One and a half weeks earlier he had been run down by a teenager he had never seen before on an Atv. Hasil survived the attack but most likely suffered internal injuries that caused his death 10 days later.

Announcement for Hasil's funeral service. Notice the misspelling of his name.

Ever since I listened to the Haze's savage Rock'n'Roll for the first time I was hooked. It was the mid 80s and the only Hasil Adkins LPs available were the 'Chicken Walk' and 'Rock'n'Roll Tonight' albums put out by Hamburg based label Dee Jay Jamboree Records. A short time later Big Beat Records would release their Adkins LP 'He Said' and the following year Norton Records, USA put another reissue album on the market, 'Out To Hunch'. But until 1985 Hasil Adkins was as obscure as it could get. The only re-release available was the 'She's Mine/Chicken Walk' 45 on swedish Jan label from 1980 and less than a handful compilation LPs featured songs by the Appalachian wild man.

Hasil's first 45 for Florida based Air Records, July 1961. 300 copies were pressed.

When I saw Hasil's P.O. address in an american magazine one day I was exicted like a kid at christmas and sent him a letter, not really expecting any reply. I didn't believe that this one-man-wonder of minimalistic Rock'n'Roll could be reached so easily. I thought that the P.O.box was probably not used anymore anyway. I was wrong. Hasil wrote back.

At that time I was doing a fanzine called 'Something Wild' and asked Hasil if he'd be willing to do an interview by mail. He was. When I got it back I was partly disappointed and partly excited. It must have been the shortest interview by mail in the history of fanzine making but he had included a batch of private pictures to publish along with the interview. That was cool. So I wrote a rather long introduction, printed the extremely short interview and filled the pages up with the pictures he had send, no matter if Hasil was on them or not.

One of the pictures I got from Hasil.

At that time I was playing in a band(The Percolators) and we published our version of 'Chicken Walk' on an EP-compilation given away with the 'Demon Love' fanzine. I send the record to Hasil and he replied that he liked it. Needless to say that we were thrilled!

Besides the fanzine I was also running a small label(Jungle Noise) so I asked Hasil if there was any chance to release a record by him. Being a huge fan for years it would mean the world to me. As I was competing with Norton Records who seemed to have the monopole of releasing Hasil Adkins in the 90s I was sure it wouldn't be possible but I was wrong again. The Haze made it happen! One day a cheap looking cassette tape with 6 songs on it arrived and his message was 'Do with the songs what you want'. Wow... The result was the 'Slow Hunch' EP on red vinyl.

I never met Hasil but I was real close to do so. 2002 I was travelling the South and while in Kentucky I stayed at Jesse Todd Dockery's house in Lexington. Todd is one of the nicest and coolest people I have ever met and he definitely deserves an own article here at Satanic Hillbilly. Todd knew Hasil pretty well. He would drive all the way to Boone County, WV, to pick him up when he was booked to play a show in Kentucky. The plan was to visit Hasil so that I would finally get to meet him and to drop off another 100 copies of the EP for him to sell at shows. Unfortunately Hasil was down with pneumonia when Todd called to tell him that we'd be coming by, so we had to cancel the trip. I still got to talk to him on the phone which was nice. And challenging. If you've  ever heard Hasil talk you will  know that from 5 words he says you understand one or two. It was just like that for me being on the phone with him. 

Joe Coleman painting of the Haze.

Now it's five years since his death and there are more one-man-bands around than ever. Hasil's legacy lives on in various forms. What started in a little shack in the middle of nowhere over 50 years ago is now a worldwide phenomenon.

'I didn't try to be primitive. I just had bad microphones.'

(The Boone County Wild Man)