Norton Records, New York: „Hasil Adkins, West Virginia’s wildest original, will receive the highest musical honors posthumously, at his home state’s Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Culture Center in Charleston, WV on Saturday, February 10. Hasil will join the ranks of music legends including Hawkshaw Hawkins, the Swan Silvertones, Johnnie Johnson, Connie Smith, Red Sovine, Bill Withers, and Little Jimmy Dickens. Fred „Sonic“ Smith of the MC5, and performance artist Ann Magnusson are also 2018 Inductees.“
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| PRESS RELEASE from The West Virginia Music Hall Of Fame: Inductee: Hasil Adkins (1937-2005) Boone County, Acceptor: Miriam Linna (Norton Records), Music: Southern Culture on the Skids and Alan Griffith
With a reckless and self-styled approach to his music and his life, Boone County’s Hasil Adkins embodied the “wild and wonderful” spirit of West Virginia. The youngest of 10 children, he grew up in a tar paper shack on property rented from a coal company and reportedly attended a total of six days of school. Adkins began recording as a “one-man band” in the mid-’50s, most often singing, and playing guitar and drums at the same time. With the roguish aura of a hillbilly James Dean and songs like “She Said,” “Chicken Walk” and “No More Hotdogs,” he pioneered a genre that would be dubbed “psychobilly.” When Billy Miller, owner of New York’s Norton Records, began re-releasing his early singles and issuing new recordings, Adkins became a cult figure with fans all over the world. Adkins also appeared in several movies, documentaries, and television shows including Asia Argento’s 2004 film, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, and was the subject of Julien Nitzberg’s documentary The Wild World Of Hasil Adkins. Among his fans are Mike Judge and the bands The Cramps and Southern Culture on the Skids. On April 25, 2005, Adkins was found dead in his home at age 68, the result of injuries sustained when he was run over in his front yard by a teenager on an ATV. |
MEMO FROM NORTONVILLE: |
Hasil knew he was a star. It took the universe a while to admit to that fact, but now it’s clear. Around the world, hundreds of one man bands are making a racket, and thousands of fans listen to his music every day. Hasil was, as many of you know, our first artist. OUT TO HUNCH was the first album on Norton. We never planned to start a record label. We made that album because our Billy Miller had written a lengthy article for our Kicks magazine about Hasil and readers demanded to know what this West Virginia one man band sounded like. That’s how it started, almost 33 years ago- our lifelong friendship with „the Haze“, and our professional relationship, reissuing and recording his new material. It’s a privilege to accept on his behalf, and in his memory. We encourage those who are able to attend, to join us at the ceremony and celebration, and later, if the snow is not too deep, and the road is traversable into the glade where he rests, let us pay our respects with the „Hunch man“ of Madison, West Virginia, whose contribution to music and culture still reverberates in his home state and across the globe.
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