NMC #250 (BLACK STONE CHERRY)

[Jon]

by "the master of the onsies" Jon

Black Stone Cherry--Kentucky (April 2016)

1. Long Ride

2. Hangman

3. Rescue Me

4. Darkest Secret

5. The Rambler

[Scott]

So I went back through a brief history of Black Stone Cherry on this site and I was surprised to learn how much everyone loves this band.  Why surprised you ask?   Of all the comments I went through, It appears I am the only one who really hasn’t warmed up to this band.  And I still don’t quite hear it.  Though I will confess that Rescue Me really is a very good tune, and that guitar work in the middle of it was awesome.  But I had to sit through the first two songs to get to that moment.  And then the last two to try and hear more …  But alas, the overly distorted down tuned guitars with the bass playing the same riff as the guitar mixed with some southern rock/country undertones just doesn’t get me there.

 

There was a comment I posted back in 2011 that had some wishful thinking in it, something to the effect that I was interested in the bands direction and that they sounded promising.  Well…  now I know that that promise hasn’t been realized yet.  I’m passing on this band and considering them a high quality southern rock opening band but I haven’t heard much growth or change.

[TageRyche]

I haven't done my review of this album yet, but I will say that I love "The Rambler".

[RJhog (Admin)]

This is a band that I did like a good bit at one time.  I have all four of their previous albums.  The first album I've never much listened to, but I really dig the second album.   That's the album that made me think this band was just gonna get better and better.  But it hasn't come to fruition.  The follow-up was about 50/50.  It had a few very good songs, but also a few stabs at the younger generation that just didn't work for an old man like me.  Their last album was really just more of the latter and a total waste of money.  So I had no interest in wasting anymore on them.

The first track is again, more of the same yucky crap.  It's just so damn cheesy.  Hangman gets off to a promising start. It's heavy and really a track that should inspire Scott to do a SHT list on hangmen.  Decent track.  Rescue Me is another pretty good song.  Definitely better than that first track.  I've never understood what makes folks think this band has a southern rock sound.  I don't hear it it all.  If you want a modern day southern rock band, you need to be listening to Black Berry Smoke or Whiskey Myers.  But this is a very good modern rock track.  Darkest Secret never goes anywhere.  Maybe they are trying to say something profound, I'm not sure.  Now I know where it seems like I've heard this before, it sounds like it would be a Shinedown song (as much as I like that band, they've kind of lost me now too). The distortion is kind of annoying.  The Rambler is a pretty good song.  It has a country flavor to it, so I'm sure Jon doesn't like it.  That's not fair, who knows what Jon likes?  Sorry Jon.  

So it seems that I'm back to about 50/50, but that's just not gonna get it.  I'm happy to have been able to check this out, but unless they hit one out of the park, I won't buy anything else.