"I just keep doing the only thing I know," Chris Knight declares on "Go On." It's been seven years since the Kentuckian's last album, but not much has changed, art-wise. He's still collaborating with old associates such as Dan Baird and Gary Nicholson, and the main musical approach is deliberately paced country-rock that manages to be both brawny and delicately textured.
Likewise, the characters in Knight's songs are also familiar: restless and/or haunted small-town souls struggling to fill a vague emptiness. They can be aware of their own flaws - "The girls around here want a guy that's rich/ Even if I was I wouldn't be no catch" - and even if they find some fulfillment, there's a likelihood of "Trouble Up Ahead."
The set closes with terrific versions of two covers: an acoustic, fiddle-caressed take on Johnny Cash's "Flesh and Blood," and a slowed-down, bluesy makeover of John Prine's "Mexican Home," which features a duet with Prine himself in a matchup of finely weathered voices.
Along with the advice articulated by the singer of "Go On," the covers help underscore the ultimate sense of stubborn resilience at the heart of the album's songs. Sure, it can get pretty dark, but there's comfort in knowing daylight is coming.