A Pretty Good Guy

Chris Knight | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 11, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dualtone Music Group
• ASIN: B00005NTTG
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,066 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Country Music at its Best, September 14, 2001

By 

Jeremy Scott Botkins (Covington, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Pretty Good Guy (Audio CD)

A Pretty Good Guy, the follow-up to Chris Knight's self-titled debut, is nothing short of spectacular. Representing a genre reminiscent of Steve Earle, this album showcases Knight's superb song-writing ability and gravely voice. Set against intricate instrumental arrangements that are stripped down but entirely sufficient, Knight spins tales full of love, loss, and revenge. "Down the River," "If I Were You," and "North Dakota" provide three haunting stories that beg to be listened to again and again. "Oil Patch Town" and "Highway Junkie"(previously recorded by Gary Allan on The Black Dog Soundtrack) portray images of everyday life that are easily relatable. The other six tracks are as equally strong and compelling. A Pretty Good Guy will stand as one of, if not the, best country music albums released in 2001. If you have grown weary of the homogenized country music on the radio, this album will prove to be one quite a refreshing experience.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark tales of rural life observed with an unblinking eye, September 11, 2001

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Pretty Good Guy (Audio CD)

Knight's hard-scrabble tales play like a darker, rural version of Tom Waits' bowery blues. But where Waits' boozy wink provides an escape valve, and his losers are often lovable, Knight's viewpoint (born and bred in Slaughters, KY, population 200) lends little such release. His songs offer an unblinking view of rural life's roughest edges, couched in folk and country influences that include John Prine, Steve Earle, and Springsteen's "Nebraska"-era starkness. His stories tell of nearly unremitting desperation.

Earle's landmark "Guitar Town" sang of frustrated small-town inhabitants bursting to race beyond the city limits; fifteen years later, Knight's protagonists can't even imagine roads that lead out of town. His characters, weighed down by circumstance, are drawn into robbery, murder and death. Life's balance between awareness and obliviousness, between self-control and fatalism, keeps slipping his characters over the edge of ruin.

The stellar backing band (including superb keyboards from Tony Harrell and drumming from Greg Morrow) follows Knight into the darkest recesses of his lyrics. They crank up rock-tinged country and shuffling road rhythms to mark finely crafted ironic proclamations, and back away, leaving Knight nearly alone for first-person tales of homelessness and retribution.

Knight's lyrical world is a disturbing place to visit, but one whose truth is its own dark beauty. As he says of his work, "I just write about it, not around it."

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knight a legend in the making, June 30, 2003

By 

tag ward (Hutto Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Pretty Good Guy (Audio CD)

I discovered Chris Knight when the single " It aint easy being me" camemout off his first CD.
Got that album. And it was sinply awesome.
I cant decide if "Pretty good guy" is better than the first or not. But it makes no difference. They are both truly great albums.
"Down the river" is by far the stand out track on this one. It's an unbelievable tale of revenge. With one of the best lines I have ever heard. " I've been thinking Wilson's cousin better find a place to hide"

"Oil patch town" is a classic tale of small town tennage fun.
"Becky's Bible" is good too. Knight is a great story teller.
But as I read the previous reviews I cant help wonder what people were missing with "If I were you."
This is one of the best songs in the last ten years. Maybe folks just dont get where Knight is coming from. But it is truly powerful. With a real twist. Maybe people arent listening to the whole song. But pay no mind to others who discredit this track.