Chris is a rough-hewn, detail-driven alt-country singer/songwriter—imagine a prepoliticized Steve Earle borrowing John Mellencamp’s larynx. The Slaughters, Ky., native’s songwriting is only getting more focused with time, as heard on this fine fourth effort. These carefully honed character sketches and surely paced narratives evoke real rural life more accurately and honestly than most anything you’ll hear on country radio—not just the glory and the romance of ordinary Southern existence, but the darkness and the disappointments. Chris Knight’s characters have dirt under their fingernails and life behind their eyes.