Nine-pound Hammer is an American

cowpunk Cowpunk (or country punk) is a subgenre of punk rock that began in the United Kingdom and Southern California in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It combines punk rock or new wave with country, folk, and blues in its sound, lyrical subject mat ...

band. They were formed in 1985 by vocalist Scott Luallen and guitarist Blaine Cartwright in their hometown of

Owensboro, Kentucky Owensboro is a Home rule in the United States, home rule-class city in Daviess County, Kentucky, United States, of which it is also the county seat. It is the List of cities in Kentucky, fourth-most populous city in the state. Owensboro is loca ...

. They experienced their initial success with

Crypt Records Crypt Records is an independent record label founded by American-born Tim Warren in 1983. The label has been headquartered variously in Hamburg, Germany and in several locations in the United States. Crypt is perhaps best known for issuing the ten ...

. Nine-pound Hammer was one of the first rural hardcore punk bands to substantially incorporate

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

blue collar A blue-collar worker is a person who performs manual labor or skilled trades. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involve manufacturing, retail, warehousing, mining, carpentry, electrical work, custodia ...

motifs into the minimalistic hardcore sound. Their lyrics (suggestive of outlaw country) featured themes such as alcoholism,

rural poverty Rural poverty refers to situations where people living in rural area, non-urban regions are in a poverty, state or condition of lacking the financial resources and essentials for living. It takes account of factors of Rural sociology, rural so ...

, and violence, and included references and homages to the likes of Jesco White and

Dale Earnhardt Ralph Dale Earnhardt (; April 29, 1951February 18, 2001) was an American professional Stock car racing, stock car driver and racing team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Serie ...

. In contrast, most of the urban, experimental

bands of 1970s/80s Los Angeles and the UK were

roots rock Roots rock is a genre of rock music that looks back to rock's origins in contemporary folk music, folk, blues, and country music. First emerging in the late 1960s, it is seen as a response to the perceived excesses of the then dominant psychedel ...

folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...

or New Wave bands incorporating

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

instruments and influences as a secondary (sometimes temporary) aspect of their sound. Following the breakup of the band in 1997, guitarist Blaine Cartwright formed the band

Nashville Pussy Nashville Pussy is an American rock band from Atlanta, Georgia. The band's lyrical themes mostly revolve around sex, drugs, drinking, fighting, and rock 'n' roll. Initially called Hell's Half-Acre, the band's name comes from Ted Nugent's int ...

, which shares many of Nine-pound Hammer's musical and lyrical conventions with the addition of a lead guitarist and a more

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

Southern rock Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. History 1950s and 1960s: origin ...

-focused format.

History

Nine-pound Hammer first played at the Ross Theater, opening for the Xtian rap group, the Disciples of Decadence, in nearby

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is Indiana's List of cities in Indiana, third-most populous city after India ...

, with drummer Toby Myrig, David Epperson, and bassist Brian (Forrest) Payne, in 1984. David and Brian left, and Bart Altman, thunderstick man from the Disciples of Decadence, joined on bass. This lineup played a single show at the Ross Theater as the Yuppie Mop Dogs on August 31, 1985. The band played locally in

and

, garnering a very loyal following before relocating to

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...

as the Raw Recruits. The band then changed their name to the Black Sheep and became the house band at Great Scott's Depot. Darren Howard replaced Toby, and the band became Nine-pound Hammer again. The name of the band is taken from the

Merle Travis Merle Robert Travis (November 29, 1917 – October 20, 1983) was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born in Rosewood, Kentucky, his songs' lyrics were often about the lives and the economic exploitation of Ameri ...

song '' Nine-pound hammer''. Brian Moore (Active Ingredients) and Rob Hulsman (Tarbox Ramblers) joined on bass and drums in 1988, just before recording the band's first LP, ''The mud, the blood, and the beers''. The band has eleven full-length albums and several

EPs An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' deemed '' Hayseed timebomb'', the band's third release, a "stand-out" "trashy indie" album. In 2005, Nine-pound Hammer was asked to pen a theme song and lyrics for '' 12 oz. Mouse'', a new

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

animated series showing on America's

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

. Singer Scott Luallen also appears in the series as the voice actor for the character Roostre. More recently, they were featured on ''

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters Colon the Soundtrack Aqua is the Latin word for water. As such, it is often used in many words which relate to water, such as aquatic life. In English, it may also refer to: Arts * Aqua (color), a greenish-blue color Business * Aqua (Chicago), an 82-story resid ...

'' with the track "Carl's Theme," in which the lyrics play off of the character "Carl" and one of his lines in ''

Aqua Teen Hunger Force ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' (also branded with different #Alternative titles, alternative titles for seasons 8–11), is an American adult animated television series created by Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro for Cartoon Network's late night progra ...

''.

Releases

Full-length

* The Mud, The Blood, and The Beers - 1988 * Smokin' Taters! - 1992 * Hayseed Timebomb - 1994 * Live At The VERA - 1999 * Kentucky Breakdown - 2004 * Mulebite Deluxe - 2005 * Sex, Drugs and Bill Monroe - 2008 * Country Classics - 2010 * Bluegrass Conspiracy -2016 * The Barn's On Fire (Live) - 2017 * When The Sh*t Goes Down - 2021 * Rock 'n' Roll Radio - 2023

Other

* ''12 oz. Mouse Theme'' - 2005 * ''Carl's Theme'' -

- 2007

Current line-up

* Scott Luallen (vocals) * Blaine Cartwright (guitar) * Earl Crim (guitar) * Brian Pulito (drums) * Mark Hendricks (bass)

Former members

* Brian Moore (bass) * Matt Bartholomy (bass) * Bill Waldron (drums) * Bart Altman (bass) * Rob Hulsman (drums) * Adam Neal (drums) * Johnny Evans (Drums)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Owensboro, Kentucky Hardcore punk groups from Kentucky American alternative country groups Musical groups established in 1985 Musical groups disestablished in 1997 Musical groups reestablished in 1998 1985 establishments in Kentucky Country music groups from Kentucky