Wayne “The Train” Hancock.The man who single-handedly inspired Hank Williams III to give up punk rock, cut his hair and start singing through his nose for five minutes or so. He's so loud that when Big Sandy stepped in to spell him at the Doll Hut a few years ago, Sandy had to have the mic turned up. And the other night on PBS, American Masters managed to profile Hank Sr. with nary a word about Wayne. T'aint right.
Sleepy LaBeef.He's 110 years old, and his personal Greyhound burned up a while back, but that hasn't stopped him from touring. With him, you get more obscure '50s than you've ever heard in one place. Dexter Romweber. The ex-Flat Duo Jets front man doesn't talk between songs; instead, he invents lyrics to classics as he goes, and he can make his Danelectro Silvertone sound like a train. The Guana Batz. They were the chief proponents of British psychobilly (even though they're from San Diego) years before anyone else cared—and they're actually good. The Polecats. Like Tom Petty, rockabilly was new wave for about three minutes in the '80s, and the U.K.'s Polecats were the new wave rockabilly band. Boz Boorer kills, and some of them, like wiggy vocalist and proud San Diegan Pip Hancox, live over here now, too.
