Haunted Hillbilly

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines “phantasmagoria” as
“a sequence of dreamlike real or imaginary images.” In Haunted
Hillbilly, Toronto writer Derek McCormack has picked up the sense of the
term and run with it all the way down the field. Using an inventive mix
of horror-comic imagery, gay porn, and real characters, and leavening
the brew with his own brand of minimalist prose, McCormack presents a
quirky version of how Hank Williams, Sr., was influenced by Nudie Cohn,
the tailor who created the clothes Hank wore on stage at the Grand Ole
Opry. “[I’d] hand him a kewpie,” Nudie narrates. “A cowboy.
Purple shirt. Orange bandanna. Cherry chaps.” Hank says to Audrey, his
girlfriend, “He said he’d make all my clothes for free. But I can
only wear his clothes. It’s a whatchamacallit. A deal.” It’s hard
to figure what the macabre clothier wants from his manipulations, other
than the vampire necessities—blood and (sexual) subjugation. But what
a vampire wants, he gets, even if temporarily, and Hank offers little
resistance. There are references in the story to other country
stars—Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, and Stringbean. Tubb, in fact, plays a
major role in the plot. The novel is short and easy to read. Sections of
it have been previously published.