Coleman Williams IV and the Strange Band by Nick Rau
There’s only the slightest hint in the band name that the front man of IV and the Strange Band descends from musical royalty. “IV,” as you might have spotted, is also the Roman numeral for four — in this case identifying singer Coleman Williams as the fourth in a line of kings.
IV’s great grandfather was none other than Hank Williams, the legendary country crooner. Grandfather Hank Williams Jr. was probably just as famous for asking America every Monday night “Are you ready for some football?” as he was for selling 70 million albums. But it was seemingly dad, Hank III, mixing country music with a snippet of metal, that served as Coleman’s biggest musical influence.
The four singles IV and the Strange Band have released to date are an amalgam of honky tonk and hardcore. “Son of Sin” starts off with old-timey vocals before a fiddle and a heavy guitar join the fray, lending a quiet-loud-quiet dynamic to the chronicle of another troubadour who’s done wrong. “Inbred” provides a little banjo plucking alongside a lyric about an inbred family that is persecuted by their community. “Deep Down” opens with yodeling and strummed guitar before an amplified, Stone Temple Pilots-style air war hits. Finally, there’s “Stand Your Ground,” the most conventionally country of the bunch, but still with enough aggression in places to open up a mosh pit.
IV waited until the ripe old age of 29 to lean into a musical career — the same age at which his beloved great grandfather died in a car crash in 1953. But online footage from a recent live show in Las Vegas shows an ensemble that’s comfortably in command. From under the wide brim of a Stetson, IV strums acoustic guitar and sings and screams with a drawl. Backed by an electric guitarist, a standing bassist, a drummer and an occasional banjo they provide the soundtrack for a rowdy evening with songs from their upcoming debut LP, “Southern Circus.”
IV and the Strange Band play for 18+ 8pm Friday, July 22 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. ivandthestrangeband.com ~ David Rolland
