Customer Reviews

Jealous Kind

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just love this CD. I was first introduced to Chris Knight listening to Fred Eaglesmith, and I have been a fan ever since. The songs on this CD are hard driving and the lyrics remind me a lot of a rougher slaid cleaves, very folky except the music and guitars are more alt country tinged then americana folk. I find myself drawn to this king of music, hard guitars with a steel guitar/dobro and fiddle, you can't much better than that. I consider this album underated, and I feel musically its much stronger than a lot new stuff I am hearing these days by more respected artists. Chris Knights' other albums are if anything, as good or better than this one though some of his older work is a little more pop oriented.

Periodically I sift through pages and pages of Amazon Country/Americana recommendations looking for good music that sits outside of the 'Nashville Machine' mould. Often it's like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack - but here and there I've found some incredible artists (Buddy Miller, Jim lauderdale, Iris Dement, Wayne Hancock, Dale Watson, Del McCoury etc). A few years ago I came across Chris Knight's second CD 'Pretty Good Guy' and when I listened to the track samples I knew straight up I was onto a superb find. I subsequently got hold of his brilliant self titled album and now the latest CD 'The Jealous Kind'. The editorial review by Don McLeese says it all really - yes, I'd compare Chris's narrative style with that of Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen etc. - yes, his music fuses Country twang with Rock propulsion and yes, it's the power of the hard hitting songcraft that distinguishes Knight. I'd also add that his music has a soul stirring honesty/integrity that sets it apart from the mostly mediocre stuff that passes for Country, and the self conscious cool of a lot of Alt-Country/Americana music today. Standout tracks for me on this CD are: 'The Jealous Kind', 'Staying Up All Night Long', 'A Train Not Running', 'Carla Came Home', 'Broken Plow' and 'Hello Old Man' Chris Knight is an artist of substance and 'Jealous Kind' is indeed the real deal.

The third album of Chris Knight again haunts me in my dreams and keeps me awake at night because of the sound of the train not running. Man he gives me the chills. Can't get enough of his lyrics & music. Keeps me aching for more. Again on this third album not a single weak song. My favorites : A train not running and Broken Plough. Can't wait for his forth album (and fifth, sixth etc)

Knight's third album follows closely in the tracks of his second. With co-producer (and ex-Georgia Satellite) Dan Baird on board again, Knight's tales of hardscrabble living and hard-won experience are set to a country-rock backing that melds the intimacy and twang of the hyphenate's first-half with the power of the second. His lyrics have a novelistic passion for character detail, but fit effortlessly into the space of a three-minute song.

Surprisingly, Knight's taken on several songwriting relationships, co-writing tunes with Nashville stalwarts Gary Nicholson and Matraca Berg, and somewhat more outside talents like Chuck Prophet and Stacy Dean Campbell. The results aren't quite as dark as the songs on his previous album, "A Pretty Good Guy," nor tied as closely to gothic side of rural life, nor do they have the first-person feel that made his previous album so bone chilling.

This and Knight's previous outing each mine similar musical veins, and while the strike is hardly expired, the directness of Knight's lyrics aren't as surprising the second time around. E.g., this album's "Carla Came Home" and the previous release's "Down the River" sport similar revenge themes. On the other hand, his co-write with Stacy Dean Campbell, "A Train Not Running," is a truly great song of lost livelihoods, with Knight's vocals more rustic than Campbell's 1999 take (on the exceptional "Ashes of Old Love"). Either way, the song's hope, fear and desperation is jaw dropping.

Overall, a good album from a great artist that consolidates on the artistic leap forward he'd already made on his previous outing. [©2005 hyperbolium dot com]

The third album of Chris Knight again haunts me in my dreams and keeps me awake at night because of the sound of the train not running. Man he gives me the chills. Can't get enough of his lyrics & music. Keeps me aching for more. Again on this third album not a single weak song. My favorites : A train not running and Broken Plough. Can't wait for his forth album (and fifth, sixth etc)

"the Jealous Kind" should make Chris Knights' peers insanely jealous as so few are making this kind of driving, hard bitten "real" music. With a voice vaguly reminicent of Steve Earle, Knight weaves dark tales of revenge and desperation with perfectly timed guitar licks and and pulsing percussion. This the best record I've heard in a while. It rated six listenings all the way through on a recent road trip. Every single song on the 11 song CD is worthy.

Somehow, a modern country music industry in search of its own identity has overlooked Chris Knight. His music tells stories that strike so deep in the listener -- both lyrically and instrumentally -- that it would be impossible to question the honesty of it. Frequently and inappropriately referred to as a poor man's Steve Earle, Knight stands alone in his ability to captivate with tales so sorrowful and intriguing yet perfectly simple and pure. In "The Jealous Kind," Knight relates himself as a protagonist with undeniable shortcomings in the title track, "A Train Not Running," and "Hello Old Man," yet he remains a sympathetic figure throughout, particularly in the bitter "Staying Up All Night Long." To put it simply, Knight's music reminds you of the beauty of rural life's dullness and straighforwardness.

This guy is great, I have seen him in Concert and he is even better then.

Studio cuts are really good though.

Can't remember how Chris Knight came on my scope, but I finally gave him a close listen recently and felt like I'd been whacked upside the head. This CD is stone fabulous from start to finish. It will recall Steve Earle, Robert Earl Keen, Joe Ely, John Prine, and -- from the days when he was flirting with heartland America instead of arena rock -- The Boss. But Knight is no pale composite of his influences. He has a strong country rock voice, excellent music and arrangements thanks to former Georgia Satellite Dan Baird -- from where, presumably, the rock edge of this CD emerges, and -- best of all -- he tells some great stories -- foreclosed farms, sons who turn out like the fathers they escaped (Hello Old Man), and criminal ghosts haunting a stretch of Southern highway (Long Black Highway). But there are eight more equally arresting cuts here and not a single one with a wasted second of fluff or histrionics. This is the real deal.

If Chris Knight's music was ever played on country radio....Some real music might be heard!!

One of the most underrated talents around. Master story teller with music. Finally....someone worth enough to wear Steve Earle's crown.

"Staying Up All Night" is worth the disc alone! He creates stories so well hidden in song you sometimes forget the music!!

Thank the stars for Chris, Buddy Miller, Greg Trooper, Robert E Keen, Tift Merritt, Alison Moorer and Steve Earle....My cd player would be empty without them.

NO bubble gum country here. Real music for real people!!