May, 2016 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 39MUSIC TECH
“Taking your
life is not an
escape of
anything,”
says Chris
Robertson.A
t one point somewhere in
2011 or 2012 – memory dulls the
precise moment – Black Stone
Cherry frontman Chris Robert-
songrabbedagunandwalkedoutside his
house,situatedonanidyllic11-acre prop-
erty in rural Edmonton, Kentucky. Bat-
tling substance abuse issues and suf ering
severedepressionandanxiety,
he’dreachedapointinhislife
wherehe“literallywantedto
quit and give everything up”.
Though suicide seemed the only
solution, something stopped him
fromturningthegunonhimself,
aneventherecountson“Hang-
man”, a key song on Black Stone
Cherry’s just-released album,Kentucky.
“My favourite line is ‘I’m not afraid and
you’renotmysaviour’,”heofersfrom his
home, “and that’s basically [talking about]
therealisationthattakingyourown life is
notanescapeofanything.”
That realisation saved his life and the
careerofhisband,whichhefounded in
2001 with friends Ben Wells (guitar),
Jon Lawhon (bass) and John Fred Young
(drums), aged just 16 (Black Stone Cherry
isRobertson’sfirstrealgroup).Inthe UK in2014 they became arena headliners in their
own right, taking their muscular brand of
southern American rock to venues such as
Birmingham’s LG Arena (captured on last
year’s Th ank You: Liv in’ Live DVD), only to
return home to America and lose their deal
with Roadrunner. “I think we’re the only
band to play an arena tour and get dropped
by our label,” shrugs Robertson. “I guess we
didn’t sell enough records.”
Unbowed, the band started writing
Kentucky as an independent act – “It was
refreshing and terrifying at the same time”- but soon inked a deal with
Mascot, home to the likes of
Warren Haynes and Black Label
Society. They named their fi fth
album, which they produced,
after their home state upon re-
alising that everyone who per-
formed on it – from the engi-
neer to guest musicians – hailed
from Kentucky, and also to honour the fact
that 10 years after recording their self-ti-
tled debut LP in Barrick Recording studio,
they’d returned there to make their fi fth.
Up next is a world tour, which will bring
Black Stone Cherry to Australia for the
fi rst time in late June. Robertson is hop-
ing to avoid any encounters of a slither-
ing kind. “You guys have entirely too much
shit that can kill you,” he chuckles. “And
I’m absolutely petrifi ed of snakes. Noth-
ing scares me more.” ROD YATES
Black Stone Cherry’s
Southern Harmony
The Kentucky rockers
overcame label and personal
issues to release fifth albumBREAKING
CHERRYONTOP
Wells,Young,Lawhonand
Robertson(fromleft)The New
Shure Thing
Shure KSM8
RRP $948Shure’s SM58 vocal mic is
such a standard fi xture on
live stages that it’s easy to
forget the company have
been improving on their
classic for decades. Their
latest of ering, the KSM8,
looks set to dethrone the
SM58 as the microphone of
choice for venues looking to
up the ante when it comes
to vocal reproduction. Es-
sentially, the KSM8 brings
studio quality to the stage
in the world’s fi rst dual-dia-
phragm dynamic handheld
microphone. It sounds
incredibly accurate and
has virtually no “proximity
ef ect”, which is bad news
for stand-up comedians but
great for everyone else.Vinyl Streaming
Audio Technica LP60WH-BT
Bluetooth Turntable
RRP $299While vinyl has been making a solid
return, it’s often di cult to pair a
turntable up with many of the mod-
ern speakers we have in the home,
many of which are set up to stream
audio from Bluetooth devices. Audio
Technica’s LP60WH-BT allows you to
set up your turntable in one room and
listen to it in another via Bluetooth.
You can pair the LP60WH-BT with up
to eight dif erent pairs of speakers,
headphones or other devices and
store them in the built-in memory.
Once stored, a simple push of a but-
ton is all that is required to connect
your chosen wireless device.otVinyl Streaming
TOP: ROB FENN