Customer Reviews

Trailer Tapes

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Usually throwback albums are pretty bad, but here is a rare exception. Several albums into a critically acclaimed career, Chris Knight has decided to give us a look at himself in 1996, before anyone knew who he was. The Trailer Tapes is as bare bones as it gets: a guy, a guitar, a trailer, a tape recorder. The result is a genuine, raw, emotional performance from a talented singer/songwriter that is hungry to be heard.

This album sparkles with unkempt emotion. Its simplicity speaks in direct contrast to the overproduced and massaged music coming out of Nashville today. I'll take raw emotion and brilliant songwriting in a Kentucky trailer over Rascal Flatts anyday. If you are looking for pop-country with a fake smile, go elsewhere. Knight doesn't sing happy music, but no one is asking him to. People turn to music to capture their own emotions, which are often melancholy and pain-ridden. Knight does an admirable job doing this here.

Knight's talent belies his relative obscurity in the Americana scene. It is not an overstatement to say that he is among the best of today's Americana artists, though he has not yet received the acclaim he deserves. Comparisons to Steve Earle are a cop-out -- Knight is a unique character who doesn't squarely fit some cookie-cutter pedigree.

Several of the album's songs are excellent: "My Only Prayer" is a gem about the disillusion of city life (There's no need to reach for stars/When you can't see the sky). "Leaving Souvenirs" ties the life and death of a car to the memory of a long lost love. "House and 90 Acres" is better here than it is on his self-titled album because somehow a song sounds more honest when it is sung by a guy with a guitar in a trailer.

This is early raw and powerful Chris Knight, recorded where the music was written. A great introduction for new listeners or a long-awaited addition to a full library, it is a must have for fans of one of Americana's most celebrated musicians. Here Comes the Rain is a mournful voice of loss, and Spike Drivin' Blues has all the hard-driving brash sound we expect from Chris Knight. The emotion comes through loud and clear on all these tracks; listeners who think the artist should FEEL something when they sing will not be disappointed.

I went into a co-workers office and he was playing this CD. I said this is cool music so he lent it to me. I tell you this is some of the coolest music I have heard and I typically don't even listen to country music. It reminds me a little of Steve Earle, but its a little more fresh and innovative. Hopefully Chris releases some more music like this.

Intrigued by Chris Knight years ago because of the record company's hoopla to brand him the modern-age Steve Earle. That will get any fan's attention. Luckily, Knight has continued to push his brand of country-folk-rock to the forefront to where fans want everything from him. Including me. Enter 'The Tailer Tapes.' Finally unearthed from the hands of the maestro himself, 'The Trailer Tapes' allows us to get an early understanding behind Chris' initial writings and they stand as a test of his continuing legacy as a true singer-songwriter, keeping him at the forefront of his peers.

Ok...maybe a bit of a cynical title, but hey, its true. This is a bare-bones, acoustic, from the heart album, and that is part of its greatness. Chris Knight is a songwriter's songwriter. He brings to life characters that many of us can directly relate to, and presents them in an honest light. It is a true shame that Knight isn't more well known. Big & Rich he is not......and that is a very good thing. This guy seems to write from the heart, not just for the bucks, although I'm sure he would like it, and in reality, should be bringing them in. If you are a Chris Knight fan and don't own this....what are you thinking? If you are wondering about Chris Knight, this CD is as good a place as any to start. If you want a "better produced" CD, with a full band, maybe look to his others to start with. To me, this is Chris at his best. All of his CD's are great, IMO, so you can't go wrong with any of them.

Based on how and where I heard of Chris Knight, I expected something different. It has really grown on me. While unexpected, I love his style. Very simple, a man, his guitar, and his words. I really like his lyrics and expressions. I like it better every time I listen to it.

Knight's studio recordings quickly established the Kentucky native as an imposing songwriter with a dark streak of honesty. His self-titled 1998 debut for MCA showed off his songwriting prowess, but the Nashville session players didn't have the grit to back up the spit in Knight's eye. 2001's "A Pretty Good Guy," produced by the Georgia Satellites' Dan Baird, proved to be a breakthrough. Baird focused the arrangements more like folk songs, with Knight's words as the anvil, and his voice as the hammer. Comparisons to John Price, Steve Earle, Johnny Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen followed as Knight uncorked songs of rural violence and hopelessness that were magnetic in their horror.

Two years before his bow on MCA, Knight recorded a series of acoustic demos that plainly illustrated the power and directness that landed a recording contract, and foreshadowed the brilliance to which he'd return on "A Pretty Good Guy." Starkly recorded by Frank Liddell in a single-wide Kentucky trailer, Knight, his original songs, his rustic voice and his acoustic guitar are brutal in their transparency. Think of Springsteen's "Nebraska" without having to shuck off a superstar's career -- this is first-generation rural grit, rather than a studied re-creation. And Knight's discomfort at recording - singing into a microphone, picking a sympathetic key, playing a song the same way twice, the heat of a Kentucky August strangling the oxygen - add a palpable edge to the characters whose voices populate the lyrics.

Of the eleven originals, only three have turned up again - "House and 90 Acres" and "Something Changed" on Knight's debut, and "If I Were You" on "A Pretty Good Guy." The latter, sung slower and in a lower key, isn't as pained as the re-rerecording, but the words of a regretful hold-up are just as powerful. "Something Changed," also sung slower and in a lower key, creates poignancy from the intimate voice-and-guitar performance - something the debut album squandered. The eight additional titles are heard here for the first time on CD, and their strength is surprising, given that Knight dropped them all in the two years before his commercial debut.

From the start Knight drew upon characters in trouble and turmoil. He sings of couples on the verge of collapse, wounded lovers, battered wives jailed for self-defense, burned out rail workers, small-town brawlers with chips on their shoulders, and the displaced and dispossessed. His characters are spent and hopeless, the stunted imaginations to which they'd descend in a few albums are salted here with dimming slivers of hope.

Ray Kennedy's remixed the two-track tapes to perfection, retaining their intimate sound while removing distracting recording artifacts. The eleven tracks easily best the quality (though not the quantity) of unofficial versions of these sessions that have circulated over the years. In comparison, Knight's studio albums have more formal craft, and he matured as a performer, but these raw first performances are the summation of the living at the root of his songwriting. This is an essential buy for fans of Chris Knight, or anyone who likes gutsy, uncompromised folk-country with a hardnosed rural edge. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]

This is the Chris Knight I fell for on his debut album. It may be "raw" to some, to me it is sheer genius. His lyrics are so well written and is singing adds depth and feelings the reverbate out of my speakers. There is no way to deny Chris Knight has talent!

When I first listened to this I did not care for it. It was way to raw for me. If you are an aficionado of Chris Knight definitely buy it for your collection. It definitely gives you a sense of his roots and why he is where he is at today. The more I listen to this the more I like it. Here comes the rain is wonderful song that I can relate to.

Disappointing if you have the rest of his CDs, like me. It's not awful, but doesn't match up to his other output. Interesting to hear earlier versions of a couple tunes. Sound quality uneven as you would expect.