Sunday, August 31, 2008
A+E, Music, Reviews
CHRIS KNIGHT
“HEART OF STONE”
(DRIFTER’S CHURCH)
Courtesy of Thirty Tigers
CHRIS KNIGHT
w/the Hackensaw Boys
Friday, Sept. 5—Saturday, Sept.6
Smith’s Olde Bar
$15
404 875-1522
www.smithsoldebar.com
“My worst nightmare is standing still,” sings Chris Knight on the opening track of his latest release, in a torn voice that leaves no doubt he means it. It’s the road—unforgiving, alluring, limitless yet limiting—that provides the backdrop to his finest album in a decade of sturdy, uncompromising releases.
Longtime friend and cohort Dan Baird fills the producer’s chair, and he brings along fellow Yayhoos bassist Keith Christopher to help slather that old Georgia Satellites mojo over these tough country-rockers. Baird has produced Knight previously, but the results here show the two have bonded over a powerful set of rugged, emotionally trenchant heartland rockers that make anything in the John Mellencamp songbook sound anemic by comparison.
The tunes exude additional gravitas from the producer’s backing accompaniment—billed as “teenager sounding guitar solos”—which feels almost garage-like in its rawness. Knight’s voice is a craggy combination of John Fogerty and Steve Earle as he sings songs that use “My Old Cars” and the “Crooked Road” to express the trials of the bluest of blue-collar working-class heroes.
The stories are simple yet potent: the ex-con coming home to make things right for “Maria,” the woman leaving an abusive relationship in “Danville,” and the yearning for money that won’t likely appear as “Another Dollar” seems further away.
It’s Knight’s connection to, and compassion for, these protagonists that make his characters spring to life with such vivid clarity. That honesty is seldom expressed in contemporary Americana with such conviction, which makes “Heart of Stone” beat with such sincere passion and intensity. 3.5 STARS—Hal Horowitz