• The only other guy who has more Hank Williams in him than me is Wayne ‘The Train’ Hancock...Very few people can be real purists, but Wayne is a purist all the way.

    — Hank Williams III

  • A rare breed of traditionalist, one who imbues his retro obsessions with such high energy and passions that his songs never feel like the museum pieces he's trying desperately to preserve.

    — Allmusic.com

  • The country music scene could do with a lot more characters like Wayne, who push the music’s limits while staying truer to its roots than any well-known names associated with the genre today.

    — Slug Magazine

  • Hancock, who tosses out a roots mix of old country, roadhouse blues, western dance swing, boogie bop, and straight-up rockabilly, takes what was once old and makes it seem like it's always been and always will be.

    — Allmusic.com

  • Artists like Wayne “The Train” Hancock aren’t just singing those songs—they’re living them just like many of us.

    — Country Weekly

  • There's two reasons you won't hear him on so-called country stations: he's too good and too uncompromising. In an earlier era, Hancock would have been a top honky-tonk star.

    — San Diego Union-Tribune

  • One of the most shiver-inducing singers on the planet, who gets his nickname by virtue of the unstoppable power of his vocal chords, Hancock embodies the spirits of Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb and Bob Wills in his ferociously swinging honky-tonk—outlaw country to the max.

    — San Francisco Chronicle

  • What we have here is a classic artist. I can say, without feeling a cold shiver of guilty tension, that Wayne Hancock is the Hank Williams of these times.

    — LostAtSea.net
Hometown: 
Austin, TX

Wayne Hancock has more Hank Sr. in him than either I or Hank Williams Jr.  He is the real deal."   - Hank III

Since his stunning debut, Thunderstorms and Neon Signs in 1995, Wayne 'The Train' Hancock has been the undisputed king of Juke Joint Swing--that alchemist's dream of honky-tonk, western swing, blues, Texas rockabilly and big band.  You won't even notice that he doesn't have a drummer. And when Wayne steps on stage, he owns it. 

Always an anomaly among his country music peers, Wayne's uncompromising interpretation of the music he loves is in fact what defines him: steeped in traditional but never "retro;" bare bones but bone shaking; hardcore but with a swing. Like the comfortable crackle of a Wurlitzer 45 jukebox, Wayne is the embodiment of genuine, house rocking, hillbilly boogie.

Wayne makes music fit for any road house anywhere. With his unmistakable voice, The Train's reckless honky-tonk can move the dead. If you see him live (and he is ALWAYS touring), you'll surely work up some sweat stains on that snazzy Rayon shirt you're wearing. If you buy his records, you'll be rolling up your carpets, spreading sawdust on the hardwood, and dancing until the downstairs neighbors are banging their brooms on the ceiling. Call him a throwback if you want, Wayne just wants to ENTERTAIN you, and what's wrong with that?

Wayne's disdain for the slick swill that passes for real deal country is well known. Like he's fond of saying: "Man, I'm like a stab wound in the fabric of country music in Nashville. See that bloodstain slowly spreading? That's me."

Wayne factoid: Wayne is the only Bloodshot artist to have had their CD taken aboard a space shuttle flight (that we know of...)

Artist Website
Compilation Tracks: 
Recommended if You Like: 
Hank Williams
Chuck Berry
Junior Brown
Rev Horton Heat
Big Sandy
Deke Dickerson
Hank III

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