Although they have been labelled by some within the music industry as a modern version of a southern rock band, Kentucky’s Black Stone Cherry have taken the core elements of that popular, homespun genre, and infused it with elements of alternative hard rock, and straightforward classic rock to create an unbeatable amalgam of musical virtuosity, melodic mastery and passionate playing that has lead to a growing legion of fans worldwide for the talented quartet, over the entirety of their near 20 year career.
Released Oct. 30 through Mascot Records, The Human Condition is Black Stone Cherry’s seventh studio album, and first since Family Tree, which came out in 2018. It sees band stalwarts Chris Robertson (lead vocals/guitar), Ben Wells (guitar), Jon Lawhon (bass) and drummer/pianist John Fred Young bringing forth arguably the band’s most intense, most relentlessly insistent, most complete and most emotionally dynamic collection of songs ever.
Throughout the journey of the album, each track explores aspects of life, both within the individual, and collective as humanity, with the material gleaned from personal experiences as well as bearing witness to the discord, disharmony, division and sense of dislocation that seems to be dominating these current times.
Top it off with a thick layer of angst thanks to what some have called the ongoing global bastard, and you have an album perfect for 2020.
The album was well underway, with much of the material already written when the government-imposed restrictions to help mitigate the pandemic kicked into high gear in the early spring of 2020. So, while the content of the album wasn’t necessarily inspired directly by the Covid catastrophe, the energy of the recording sessions certainly was.
“We were in the studio when they first started issuing the soft guidelines of having 10 people in a room and things like that. And there were only six of us in the studio, so we were well within the guidelines and everything. But I didn’t really realize the entire magnitude of the issue until we came out of the studio. That’s because as soon as we go into the studio, I kind of shut the world out; I don’t listen to the radio, I don’t watch TV, so the songs themselves weren’t really affected,” Robertson said.
“I don’t think there’s a way around the fact that, without a doubt the state of the world definitely influenced the record. Even though the songs were pretty much already written, the sense of urgency meant that everybody was just so driven. I don’t know man, it just really kept pushing everything. This record is really unique and really special, and I think obviously the world being the way it is right now has a lot to do with it.”
Robertson said that even without the complicating factor of the pandemic and the extra layer of stress, anxiety and dread it’s brought to bear, the world was already a pretty messed up place socially, politically, environmentally and economically – all of which DID inspire the way the songs came together and their topicality.
“I mean the world, everything around you effects everything that happens in your life and how you react to it. Even before things started getting really crazy with the lockdowns, the world itself kind of changed things. But at the same time, we have always written about what we know and what we’re going through, and all these stages that we live. I think some of these songs, it was like a magic time for the songs to come to life and to complete the songs that we completed,” he explained.
“It was really quite spectacular, really, especially for songs like [badass lead-off track] Ringin’ in My Head, the vast majority of that song was written several years ago. It’s totally different now, but it still fits which is kind of unique when you realize as you’re listening to the song, the lyrics especially, that it was written three years ago.”
After two decades on the road, travelling the highways and byways of North America, as well as touring extensively to far flung foreign lands, Robertson and his band feel that they are at a place in their lives as people and as artists to have the perspective to unleash such a bold creative statement as to the various aspects of life on earth – hence the album title, The Human Condition.
“Like I’ve said, we write about what we know and what we experience. We’re very fortunate because we get to go to a lot of places and experience a lot of cultures. And when you see things around the world, that the problems are the same around the world, you’ve got people struggling everywhere, man, it offers us such a different insight than if we were always here at home,” Robertson said.
“Prior to this album, we had come off 10 years of basically being on the road constantly and seeing all these different things and I am really thankful for that, and that we had all of those experiences going into the studio. We hadn’t been home for an extended period of time and now we had all of these experiences to draw on. And as a person and as a songwriter, I am kind of spongy – I wear my heart on my sleeve and things really affect me in certain ways. But it all leads to great music in the end and to me, that’s what it’s all about.
“Music has always been like that for me. Music is everything. It’s not just my job or something I do for fun; it is everything for me. And I remember when I was a kid and when I just wanted an escape, I put on music. And it’s always been there for me, man. No matter what, music has always been there, and I think right now, with what we’re all going through, I need it more than ever – we all do. I was a huge Lynyrd Skynyrd fan, and that music was amazing. And then I got into Nirvana, and I also came to love Bob Marley, who ended up being one of the biggest influences for me. So, really it was Bob Marley, Skynyrd, Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana that were the four that were important to me.”
Black Stone Cherry has been comprised of the same four band members for the entirety of their career, which is a dynamic that leads to incredible creative depth and a tight, energetic live show that blows minds and roofs off buildings. Songs come at any time, and in any place for the band, even more so for The Human Condition.
“We are always talking about ideas that we’ve had, where its like ‘hey, do you remember this?’ That happens a lot and when it does, we really start working on those ideas, and that’s what we did with some of these songs. Some others, we did more when we were on the bus and then some others we really dug into when we were in the studio and we just let it all come naturally. We had never really written much in the studio before, so it was really a cool experience,” he said, adding that they wanted a real attention grabber to start the album, hence the powerfully compelling Ringin’ in My Head.
“We originally wrote that about the state of music and how it’s gotten to a point where a lot of stuff was sounding the same. And we had that first verse and first half of the chorus done before we started revisiting it earlier this year. When we got into the studio and brought up that song again, man, we immediately wrote lyrics that meant something totally different from how it started out. We rewrote the second half of the chorus and the second verse and kind of took the music and did some twists to it, and there it was. To me it was just a call to attention of the situation that we’re all living in in the world today and trying to figure out how to make it better.”
Push Down & Turn is a deeply atmospheric track, infused with emotion and profound meaning, as it relates to the notion of opening a bottle of medication to help what ails you.
“I have always been outspoken about mental health and the fact that there is still such a stigma around it. It’s something people still don’t like to talk about, there is such a horrible spectre around mental illness. And when I was 27, 28 years old, I had a full-on nervous breakdown. I had been very open and honest about it the entire time. I am manic depressive, I have severe anxiety, and I take medication for that,” Robertson explained.
“And that song is not saying that everybody needs to be medicated. That song is literally saying I have to do this shit to work on my own life, here’s what’s worked for me. Maybe something will work for you. It’s not saying you’ve got to do the same thing that I did to get to the same place, but it is saying that without an effort, it’s not going to work for you. And for what it’s worth, here’s what I did.”
As with pretty much every band or musical artist, the pandemic has curtailed any hopes of touring, outside of the odd outdoor, socially distanced show, or online concerts. 2021 was looking to be a hugely significant year for Black Stone Cherry, as not only were they hoping to take the songs from The Human Condition on the road, but they were also hoping to amp up the touring as a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the band’s formation.
“The Covid thing literally took every plan we had and postponed or cancelled it. Once we finished the record, we were set to be on the road pretty much all year, except for June, and obviously we have not been able to do that, so here we are. Honestly, the only constant that we have seen the entire time since March was actually the album. We had the release scheduled and everything else was taken away from us, but we kept that one solid plan – the release date,” said Robertson.
“We’ve been doing everything we can to stay in the public eye. We’re a band that has built its whole career on playing live music, and obviously we put out records, but the biggest thing for us has been touring and playing live. And we can’t do that. So, for us, it’s been a lot of interviews and online stuff through social media, because it’s really all we can do right now. But, man, it’s the weirdest time, and nobody really has any answers and nobody knows how long into the future this is going to last, so it’s kind of important for bands to adapt and try new things.
“It would be amazing if we could get out on a 20th anniversary tour, it really would. And I think the biggest reason why we’ve been together this long is the fact that we’ve always been friends before we were bandmates. You know, the band was something that brought us all together, but in the end, it was friendship that made us able to be a band. It’s been the same four guys; there were only the four of us back then and it’s the same four today. And we’re all equal. With every decision, all four of us have to agree. It works through discussions with all four of us, where all opinions are equal. All four of us write the songs, we’re literally four equals. It has definitely been a push and pull relationship at times, man, but I think we’ve got it figured out pretty good and the proof is that we’ve been able to do it for this long, and we’re all in it for the long term.”
For more information on Black Stone Cherry, The Human Condition and possible post-pandemic tour dates, visit www.blackstonecherry.com, or the band’s social media channels.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for nearly 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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