Singer-songwriter Sam Williams doesn’t shy away from the family name in his television debut on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. For his performance of “Can’t Fool Your Own Blood,” the grandson of Hank Williams performs in the eerily empty Franklin, Tennessee, home where the country great once lived.
Rather than copying his grandfather’s bare-bones honky-tonk or even the country-rock collisions of his father Hank Williams Jr., Williams opts for a more expansive, atmospheric vision of folk rock in “Can’t Fool Your Own Blood.” Mixing acoustic guitar, cello, and muted percussion, Williams weaves the weight of family history together with a human tendency toward self-delusion. “Then the lost highway claims me its own/I’ve got a voice in my head/Tells me it’s fine, no matter what it does,” he sings in his emotive tenor, pacing through the decaying rooms at Hank Williams’ abandoned estate.
“One thing that will never serve you well is lying to someone you love,” Williams said when the song was released in January. “That can only lead to turmoil. ‘Can’t Fool Your Own Blood’ is about being a pattern breaker and taking control of your own fate. Being at war with oneself is the greatest battle.”
“Can’t Fool Your Own Blood” will appear on Williams’ upcoming debut album Glasshouse Children, which he will self-release this summer. It follows the 2020 single releases “Shuteye” and “The World: Alone.”