Throughout his 20-plus-year career, Murray, Ky. native Jim Finklea (aka Joe Buck) has consistently aligned himself with the most visceral projects and operated at the highest possible intensity. The band that brought him to the spotlight was Gringo, a rootsy Punkabilly trio with then-girlfriend Leila Vartanian that sounded like whisper-to-scream demos for X in full Metal Knitters mode, with Patti Smith tagging in for Exene Cervenka. Gringo released two albums in the ’90s for Chicago’s Pravda label before breaking up, which led Buck to join J.D. Wilkes in the Legendary Shack Shakers for the band’s blistering 2003 sophomore album, Cockadoodledon’t.
After just one outing with the Shakers, Buck began his solo career under the banner of Joe Buck Yourself, releasing his debut album, Joe Buck Yourself Motherfucker, in 2004. At that point, Buck had already provided backing vocals to Hank Williams III’s Boot #3 Pre-Release “bootleg” album, and in 2006 he took on a more prominent role with Hank 3, playing upright bass on a number of his albums while also touring with Williams’ Metal/Punk outfit Assjack and solo backing unit The Damn Band.
In between stints with Hank 3, Buck has concocted a collection of cool, crazy solo releases, including three albums, the latest of which was 2012’s Who Dat? There is not a single molecule of back-down or compromise in Joe Buck’s body, and his one-man-band catalog holds all the proof to back up that contention. There may well be a somewhat muted atmosphere to some of the material on Who Dat?, but it shouldn’t be construed as Buck’s attempt to curry favor with a wider audience. It’s more like aging a fine barrel of bourbon until it has more bite than a bayou full of alligators and enough mellowness that you don’t even feel the teeth.
Imagine the DNA of Rev. Horton Heat and Mojo Nixon engineered into a single organism and then flooded with enough gamma radiation to Hulk it up. Give it a stringy mohawk, a simmering rage and a battered Gibson, call it Joe Buck Yourself and unleash it on an unsuspecting and grateful world.
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This article appears in Jan 24-31, 2018.