He played bass for Hank Williams III‘s country/hellbilly “Damn Band”, and was also member of Williams’ punk-metal project Assjack. He is credited, along with Williams and Andy Gibson, with engineering and producing Williams’ album, Straight to Hell, and appears to have recorded backing vocals for Hank Williams III‘s Bootleg #3 Pre-Release album.
As a solo artist, he tours internationally under the moniker “Joe Buck Yourself” and is represented by Bucket City Agency, a booking agency which he co-founded.
He and a former girlfriend, Layla, once owned Jim and Layla’s Bar, a honky tonk in in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. After splitting up, Layla was awarded ownership of the establishment which is now known simply as “Layla’s”.
“Those Poor Bastards are the best gothic country I have heard yet to this day. The depressing gloomy vocals coming out of this drifter named Lonesome Wyatt has hints of Marilyn Manson to Nick Cave, Throw Rag and maybe even a hint of a demented Adam Ant with a shot of a pilled up Johnny Cash… And The Minister is backing up Lonesome Wyatt with a style that is a cross between erie strung out folk music with a creepy blend of The Nightmare Before Christmas!!!!!!!!!”
— Hank Williams III
Like so many of us, Rachel Brooke was born in the wrong time. Her classic style, and her simple and poetic songs fit much more snugly in an oval picture frame of tarnished metal and smoky glass than on CMT or Clear Channel pop country. She might be from Michigan, but this girl must have been touched with the songs and sentiments of the southlands and the weary West at birth.