CD Reviews

Chris Knight

Enough Rope | Emergent/92E

By FRANKLIN SOULTS | September 26, 2006

3.0 Stars

Chris Knight began writing this album aiming for a hit on country radio, the only mass arena left for his blend of 1970s-’80s rock, folk, and country. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it, ending up instead with the same John-Prine-to-Steve-Earle brand that has won him only a small following over three previous discs. That might explain the title of album #4, a 13-cut set that twangs a little less and rocks a little harder than its predecessors. Yet as it turns out, this native of Slaughter, Kentucky (population: 238), has never gone deeper into country’s themes. Although he still parties hard (“River Road”) and gets righteously pissed (“Dirt”), most of the best cuts are bittersweet reality checks like the title track, an imaginary tale of a rope feeder now trying to reel it in: “There’s a tavern down the highway/I go to drink some beers/And wash down all I’m missing by hanging around here/Then I drive back to the trailer/I make up with my wife/I kiss my sleeping children/And I get on with my life.” Too real for country radio, but not for fans of Prine and Earle or, for that matter, Hank and Merle.