Black Stone Cherry: Black To Blues

Hard rock Kentuckians Black Stone Cherry (BSC) have just released their third EP, Back To Blues, and it’s a six track exploration of the band’s take on blues classics, by covering them. For a quick history lesson, blues originated in the southern slash deep southern states of the USA, the closest state to Kentucky is Tennessee (a southern state, but not deep southern) which is the southern neighbouring state to BSC’s home state. This is important because, geographically, you would be correct to assume some of the original blues seeped over borders at the time of its origin and was then passed down through generations.
And fans of BSC will know some of that original blues has seeped into this band’s veins. They’ve covered tracks by Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Willie Dixon and Albert King and produced a hard rocking little EP which would make a great part of a live covers set for the serious blues and BSC fans in the mid to south of the USA.
The cover of Freddie King’s ‘Palace Of The King’ is easily the stand-out blues cover complete with backing vocals, and the cover of Albert King’s ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’ crawls along and mixes heavy and blues rather well. But, is Back To Blues a memorable EP? Yes, it is, but for the die-hards only. For everyone one else? It’s a take it or leave it scenario.
2 and 1/2 stars
Mascot Records
Reviewed by Paul S Taylor