Hate Lives in a Small Town is the seventh studio album by Cuban-Americandark cabaret singer Voltaire, released on September 3, 2010. In it, Voltaire abandons his characteristic dark cabaret sonority and heads towards a country direction. He originally wanted to record it as a solo acoustic album, but later realized that something was missing, and ended up using a full band.[1]
In his official website, Voltaire explains why he decided to make a country album:
[I] had spent [my] adult life saying [I] disliked country music. That is, until one day when in a karaoke bar [I was] reacquainted with a Johnny Cash song called "Folsom Prison Blues". "I LOVE that song", [I] exclaimed. It was followed by a Hank Williams song, a Merle Haggard song, songs by Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson, Buck Owens and more. It was then that I realized that I didn't hate country music after all. I hated what it had become. In my somewhat drunken state, I thought: "Wouldn't it be interesting to make a record of old-school country music, the kind of record that could have been released 40 years ago?".[2]
This would be the first album by Voltaire featuring drummer Brian Viglione.
