56 KERRANG!
REVIEWS
T
he finest country music, from
Johnny Cash and Hank Williams
through to Merle Haggard and
Willie Nelson, has always been
driven by a rebel heartbeat.
It’s easy to understand why punk rock-
loving Foo Fighters guitarist
Chris Shiflett might relate to its
outlaw tendencies, which seems
more pertinent than ever at a
point in history where the divide
between ‘them’ and ‘us’ appears
to be widening. So while Hard
Lessons, his second solo album,
largely adheres to the template
established by his debut, 2017’s
West Coast Town, sprinkling
open-hearted Americana with
Social Distortion-style grit, there’s
less nostalgic sentimentality in
the lyrics this time around, and
significantly more crunch to the
guitars. This is evident as early astrack two, This Ol’ World, which opens with
the lyric, ‘Has this ol’ world lost its goddamn
mind?’ and finds Chris channelling his inner
Keith Richards/Mick Taylor fantasies via
a battered Telecaster and an overheated
Marshall amp. For the most part, however,
he’s focused on the personal rather than
the political here, giving this charming,
likeable collection, produced and assisted
by hotshot Nashville producer Dave Cobb
(Rival Sons), a broad appeal, though it
never actively seeks to court Foo Fighters’
mainstream audience.
At times, in the nicest
possible way, the 48-year-
old Chris shows his age
here. Welcome To Your First
Heartache is rooted in the
guitarist’s empathetic response
to his teenage son’s romantic
setbacks, while Leaving Again
is imbued with the world-weary
ennui of a seasoned world
traveller. ‘Onstage in a room
full of strangers’, he sings on
that song, pining for family
and home comforts. But there’s
playful, irreverent humour in
imagined scenarios here, too,with The One You Go Home To, a duet with
Florida-born singer-songwriter Elizabeth
Cook, being written from the perspective
of adulterous lovers, and I Thought You’d
Never Leave gleefully celebrating a romantic
break-up. ‘Let me help you with your bags’
suggests the smirking protagonist, ‘Don’t
forget to take your cab’. Ouch.
The album’s key lyric, however, comes in
The Hardest Lessons, a bold and unabashed
declaration of independence, where Chris
sings: ‘I’ve never been better than being
alone / Every mistake I make is my own’.
It’s an indication of the importance that the
guitarist attaches to spreading his musical
wings, and while the easy-going Californian
is under no illusions about his solo career
ever eclipsing his day job, equally there’s
no mistaking the heart and soul he has
imbued in these songs. U.S. songwriter
Harlan Howard once described country
music as “three chords and the truth”.
It’s a definition which could equally be
applied to punk rock, and that integrity
and authenticity makes Hard Lessons a
substantive offering rather than a mere
vanity project for one of rock’s most
unassuming characters. PAUL BRANNIGANChris Shiflett
Hard Lessons
(East Beach Records & Tapes
/ Thirty Tigers)KKK
Foos guitarist CHRIS
SHIFLETTtwangs
away on solo album
COUNTRY BOY