As we reported earlier, Tom Hiddleston is taking on the role of legendary country crooner Hank Williams in an upcoming biopic. Yes, despite the fact that the Williams family wanted actual southerner Matthew McConaughey, the very English Hiddleston got the job. There’s never been any doubt about whether Williams’s life would make juicy film fodder. Like Johnny Cash, Édith Piaf, Ray Charles, and countless other musical biopic subjects before him, the man was nearly as tortured as he was talented. And Hiddleston who, in the span of a single year got accolades for Shakespeare, everyone’s favorite comic book villain, and a stylish, sexy vampire, is absolutely up for the job acting-wise. But can one of England’s finest exports go country? Can Loki sing on-key?

The video above, from a surprise appearance at the Wheatland Music Festival in Remus, MI, is, at the very least, a good start. (You can see a slightly larger/clearer version of the performance here.) Hiddleston’s got twang in pretty much all the right places. How well does it stack up to the original?

Just about as well as Joaquin Phoenix stacked up to Johnny Cash. You can’t go into these films expecting to hear an exact replica of your favorite singer and a slightly watered down version is infinitely preferable to the dreaded lip synch. Don’t despair, country purists, given Hiddleston’s rabid, younger fanbase I expect the soundtrack for this film will introduce the music of Hank Williams to a whole new generation. That’s got to be a win for the West, right?

Header photo via.