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If there is one thing Black Stone Cherry do well it is Big: Big Sound, Big, Riffs, Big Vocals and above all Big Anthems, all of which guarantees that Kentucky – the band’s fifth studio outing in 8 pulsating years – will have fans and newcomers to their music united in appreciation.
Long Ride is a sure fire gig barnstormer, with Chris Robertson pounding out some fabulous guitar work and razor edged vocals to lift the track to the zenith of its album counterparts. In fact, the whole album sparkles with the knowledge that BSC are a band becoming more suited to arenas and festivals than the bar rooms in which they once plied their trade.
The eagerness to please a crowd is never more evident than on the somewhat odd addition of Edwin Starr’s War to an otherwise Rock filled collection of heavy hitters, but nevertheless even this sort of works.
Soul Machine is another nod towards the Funk world, though obviously beefed up beyond recognition from that particular genre, and comes across as an enchanting call and recall number crowds will lap up in their thousands, once the band hit these shores again in the summer.
It is a little surprising then that for all of the mass induced mania the songs are sure to inspire, what is a little diluted on Kentucky is any real sense of intimacy. In fact, it is almost as though BSC are trying too hard to be something else, early Bon Jovi mixed with some latter day Nickleback springs to mind, which leaves little holes of consternation within the collective that could do with a little working on.
Black Stone Cherry
Kentucky
Label: Mascot Records
ASIN: B01A8JLNTO
PR rating: **** Pulsating