Just a Trace of Mystery

Because first names for country singers such as Faron, Ernest, Hank and Hank, Jr., were already taken, we have among us a country singer named Trace.  Trace Adkins.

Trace, who used to be a pipe-fitter on an offshore drilling rig before becoming a Grand Ole Opry music star twenty-some years ago, has topped the charts with toe-tappers such as "Ladies Love Country Boys" and "You're Gonna Miss This", "Brown Chicken Brown Cow" and the immortal "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk."  He admits to an ongoing battle with alcoholism, and I wish him the best with that.

But his latest fall off the wagon came about under odd circumstances, and since I love odd circumstances more than anything, here's the story.

Adkins was booked on some cruise ship for a voyage called "Country Cruisin'," in which land-locked music fans can spend a week on the high seas with some country singers.

One of the fans is a man named Michael Larsen, who, since 2007, has made a hobby, and a full-time living for all I know, by parading around pretending to be Trace Adkins.

Really.  This is what the guy does.  They say he even signs autographs.  And at the drop of a cowboy hat, will get and sing that catchy "Badonkadonk" number.

It reminds me of that sitcom "Still Standing" where the nutty sister-in-law started dating a guy who was in a Foghat tribute band, and Bill, the lead guy in the show, asked the musician if his main competition was other Foghat tribute bands.

"No," the man said, "it's Foghat."

Arrow indicates real Adkins

So Adkins is on the ship and, according to TMZ, he sees the guy pretending to be Adkins at the karaoke bar on the big boat.  A fight ensues, and the next thing you know, when the boat hit land in Jamaica, the real Adkins jumped ship and headed to rehab.

And the fake guy, with the competition way down, stayed aboard and may yet be afloat on a sea of badonkadonk.