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Critic's Review
Mark Deming, All Music Guide
Every great songwriter has their great subject, and Hasil Adkins -- rock legend, one-man band, and creator of America's slowest-rising new dance craze, "the Hunch" -- is no exception. A perusal of Adkins' back catalog reveals that "the Haze" is a man who loves his chicken, and for this set the like-minded lunatics at Norton Records have combined six new recordings with highlights from Adkins' previous albums (and a few vintage unreleased cuts) to create Poultry in Motion, a collection of 15 songs about chicken (discussed both as barnyard friends and as part of a well-balanced diet). You get "Chicken Walk," its cousin "Chicken Twist," the manic "Chicken Hunch," no fewer than three takes of "Chicken Hop" (one with previously undocumented West Virginia R&B act the Dynamiters), the warped but soulful "Chicken Blues," and "Chicken on the Bone" in which Adkins repeatedly mentions McDonalds. As a concept album, this approaches a level of genius rarely witnessed since either Tommy by the Who or We're in a Band by the New Duncan Imperials, and it's encouraging to report that the new tunes are just as wild and wondrously incoherent as the stuff the Haze bashed out in the 1950s. Wild, primitive, and primal rock & roll that's tasty either baked or deep fried -- just add beverages and you've got a meal!
