Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 8.5/10
People forget just how much America is a country that is arguably divided between its own extremes, of the huge and imposing cities that dominate the East and West Coasts, the mega towers that lay in between and the heartlands, the ranges and flatlands that can only look upwards and onwards with either envious eyes or more frankly with pity. It is the extremes, the separation in wealth, poverty, attitude and political alienation that drives the country to its position of dominance and its ability to give music of most genres the fair crack of the whip; after all such diversity will always throw up new heroes to worship and Kentucky is always wild about a new hero.
Black Stone Cherry have been long established and perhaps better placed than most to talk of this American identity, from a part of the country that doesn’t get the same adulation as for example as New York City, San Francisco or Dallas, the band nevertheless produce quality songs that catch the ear and throw dynamite into the path of internal self loathing and jealousy.
There is no room for these twin destructive emotions in the world and the band recognise this, instead they talk up the world around them, they bring stories of their hope in the area that they come from, of the people and whilst it might be seen as many that states such as Kentucky have nothing to offer save history, in Black Stone Cherry the world is viable, exciting, at times so strong it pulses with potential that cannot be denied.
It is a strength of purpose that carries the album Kentucky beyond the place where it is Rock standard, afar from the world of desperation and the middle America ignored by those between New York and Los Angeles; it is an album that storms with fire and sense of purpose.
In tracks such as In Our Dreams, Soul Machine, War, Hangman and Cheaper To Drink Alone, Black Stone Cherry let rip with cool calculated venom and love, they hold on to their lives with pleasure and take the listener down a path of insightful knowledge; it is knowledge that builds appreciation for their world.
A blistering album, Kentucky has offered many things in its short history but in the hands of Black Stone Cherry it proposes the best yet.
Ian D. Hall