Fans of late-‘70s southern hard rock take note: if you dig Pat Travers, Johnny Winter, Skynyrd, Rick Derringer, or Frank Marino, Hunkins’ “Talladega Pile-Up” will scratch that itch, and then some. The high-octane house party comes out swinging with the title track, metaphorically and literally putting listeners behind the wheel of a 195-mph stock car.

And it only gets wilder from there, tackling such topics as running moonshine whiskey (“Floyd County Bootleg”), robbing banks (“Over The Edge”), and fending off the apocalypse (“Shine In”). Hunkins wields his arsenal of overdriven axes while belting out whiskey-laden lyrics that hearken back to classic Molley Hatchet, Skynyrd, and Johnny Winter. “Pile-Up” is no one-man show either. Hunkins calls upon well-known gunslingers Christ Duarte (cuts “Let It Eat!,” and “Memphis”), Wes Jeans (“Henry Jackson”), and Ryan McGarvey (“Shine In”) and the tracks get a rock-solid backbeat from drummer Ryan Hoyle (of Collective Soul and Paul Rodgers fame).

Fans of muscle cars and hot rods may know Hunkins as the current editor of Popular Hot Rodding magazine, but make no mistake about it, “Pile-Up” is no sophomore effort; Hunkins has been honing his playing and writing skills for decades, and it shows in this well-conceived power pack of hard-hitting songs.