by Jonny Brick
What do you say about the man about whom
everything has already been said? Chris is, along with Morgane adding gentle
harmonic colors, an act who is outstanding in his field; one look at him and
you’d think his profession was standing out in a field.
This is the correct choice of song to send
to radio. The song can work with any arrangement: more organ, thrashier
electric guitar, unaccompanied as if in a church solo. Instead, the drum
thwacks on the 2 and the 4, the acoustic is strummed as succinctly as possible
and the five bars which introduce a new chord offer brief respite.
The image of ‘wings that used to fly’ will
stand out on the radio for sure, where it’s all things carnal and earthy. Jesus
gets a namecheck too. More importantly he listener believes Chris has seen his
share of people cut down or who have moved on, belonging ‘to the by and by’. He
is philosophical in the way Dylan is or Johnny Cash used to be: ‘We’re not
meant to know the answers,’ he sings before the final chorus.
Kentucky should be so proud to have given
birth to a man who has taken the song of the South – grit and gravel, soul and
saviours – into many homes. The figures don’t lie, nor does Trigger, who
reckons more of a song and dance should be made about two platinum albums from
a man who seems like country’s version of Dave Grohl: niceness with an electric
guitar.
8/10
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