Search - Chris Knight :: Heart of Stone

Yanking Parts

Lee Armstrong | Winterville, NC United States | 09/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Chris Knight's "Heart of Stone" is his strongest set since his Decca debut Chris Knight, which is saying quite a bit because his recent The Trailer Tapes recorded before that CD were so stunning & stark that it is hard to top. In fact, Knight has consistently recorded excellent albums such as Enough Rope & The Jealous Kind.



This set is loud, raucous, marked by excellent songwriting and Chris' half angry, half-wry observations. "Homesick Gypsy" which opens the set has the contradiction between a gypsy who is rootless and a person who desires to be at home combined as only Chris can, "I'm a homesick gypsy; I was born moving down the line; I'm a homesick gypsy; I ain't home till I leave you behind." Knight has a two-barreled electric attack with Mike McAdam's blazing electric guitar roaring out of the right speaker and Dan Baird's scorching leads out of the left speaker. Chris slows the beat slightly even as he keeps the amps revved on "Something to Keep Me Going" that sounds like it could fit on a Tom Petty album or one by the Byrds, "Still got your photograph in my wallet; Don't know why I don't throw it away; I used to take it out & look at you to get me through the day; Now I realize when I look in your eyes, I never really knew you at all." The title track written with producer/guitarist Dan Baird is a slow churner that is 50-proof heartache. Tami Rodgers joins on violin, mandolin and subtle background vocals on "Danville," "She ain't going back to Danville till she's dead." "Another Dollar" has Knight's angry vocal snarl blasting rock & country, "I need some cash in my pocket to make me feel better." "Almost There" is an excellent track with an ominous sonic attack, "Ain't nobody living in the Krantz Hotel; Devil done been there, took all my friends to hell; Hadn't been in the jailhouse, he would've got me; Seen a black flag flying from a live oak tree." As the only acoustic track on the set, "Crooked Road" stands out as a folk ballad polished to perfection by the ache in Knight's vocal delivery, "Logan, West Virginia is a 100 miles behind; Coal mine took my boy's life & my Janie's peace of mind." "My Old Cars" roars like a slow piece of highway with Knight's voice looking backward with fondness & sorrow, "I can drive by that junkyard, count the times you broke my heart, watch a jack leg with a socket wrench drinking beer & yanking parts; I can count the broken bones cause broken bones will heal, but I can't stand to count the times you said our love ain't no big deal." Knight concludes with "Go Home," his predominant theme on the set of a man trying to find a place that feels like home. This is a very strong set from a dynamic singer. Bravo!

"

Undiscovered gem!

Michael P. Hoye | Amityville,NY | 09/20/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Chris Knight flys under the radar,but is a gem.This album highlights his style.He is something to see live.He also is very funny."

Darkness in the rural heartlands

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 01/03/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Having found himself artistically on 2001's A Pretty Good Guy singer-songwriter Chris Knight shook off the major label production of his 1998 self-titled debut and wallowed in his dark visions of rural life. His follow-ups, including a startling album of pre-debut auditions, The Trailer Tapes, have stuck to a similar format of rootsy guitar-based productions backing unblinking chronicles of blue collar America. Knight is often likened to Steve Earle, and the hopelessness in his songs brings to mind Earle's Guitar Town-era work; but where Earle wrote of kids trapped by the stilted imaginations of limited experience, Knight writes of adults trapped by circumstance and situation. Earle's protagonists sense there's something better but don't know what, while Knight's are taunted by better lives that remain out of reach.



Knight opens the disc as a touring musician whose road-warrior fortitude has become a callus ("I ain't home `til I leave you behind") and on "Hell Ain't Half Full" he's a hell-bound meth dealer who thinks God's given up. Knight's characters carry forward the disappointments and failures of broken childhoods, escaping from dysfunctional relationships but unable to erase their scars. The few rays of light that penetrate Knight's bleakness are more faith than realization. He sings of a coal miner's flight from his ancestral home, counting on the belief that "hope runs a straight line down this mountain road" to the ocean. He exults in the opportunity to rekindle a relationship on the up-tempo "Maria," and takes cold comfort in the scar that's replaced the relationship of "Miles to Memphis."



Dan Baird (ex-Georgia Satellites) returns to the producer's seat, having sat out Knight's 2006 release Enough Rope, and the sound returns to the determinedly paced, sinewy Americana the two first crafted for Pretty Good Guy. It's a perfect setting for Knight as the tempos match the relentless extinction of hope in his characters. Given that Knight practiced his writing for several years before recording his debut, it's unsurprising that in a half-dozen albums his lyrical voice has remained relatively steady. What's impressive is the wealth of characters and stories he continues to dig up and render in such palpable, three-dimensional emotions. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]"