Ray Wylie Hubbard, “Chick Singer, Badass Rockin'” (2015): One Track Mind

Ray Wylie Hubbard has been sticking a steel-toed boot up country’s rear for generations, and this new song is — thankfully — no different.

Eschewing the icky pop sheen of what passes for genre music these days, Hubbard sets a massive, raggedy groove even as he espouses the wonders of rebellious females on “Chick Singer, Badass Rockin.'” No, we’re not talking about June Carter Cash or Tammy Wynette, either. Instead, Ray Wylie Hubbard can be found mentioning punky foremothers like Joan Jett and Chrissie Hynde.

The Oklahoma native connects with them, as strange as it may sound on the surface, because of what they aren’t: Pop princesses. That he tosses in a pissant-insult toward Nashville only makes their spiritual connection more clear.

Hubbard, after all, isn’t just the guy who wrote the saloon-singalong “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother” for Jerry Jeff Walker’s seminal 1973 live project Viva Terlingua. “Bad on Fords and Chevrolets,” from 2013’s Sammy Hagar and Friends, is Ray Wylie Hubbard’s song, too.

An original version of the latter is included, along with “Chick Singer, Badass Rockin,'” on the forthcoming The Ruffian’s Misfortune, due April 7, 2015 via on Hubbard’s Bordello Records. Ray Wylie Hubbard’s first album since 2012’s The Grifter’s Hymnal will be accompanied by an impishly named autobiography. A Life … Well, Lived is set for publication this summer.

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Nick DeRiso

Nick DeRiso has written for USA Today, American Songwriter, All About Jazz, and a host of others. Honored as columnist of the year five times by the Associated Press, Louisiana Press Association and Louisiana Sports Writers Association, he oversaw a daily section named Top 10 in the U.S. by the AP before co-founding Something Else! Nick is now assistant managing editor with Townsqaure Media. Listen to NICKRADIO here: bit.ly/NICKRADIO.

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