During the 1980s, artists like John Mellencamp, Steve Earle, and Bob Seger gained attention for playing a form of music called "Heartland Rock." Instead of singing songs about beautiful women, fast cars, and making money in the city, these writers covered topics more central to everyday life in rural America: Loss of innocence, heartbreak, and the drudgery of getting up every morning to work...

It’s pretty rough going for the characters in Chris Knight’s songwriting.

There’s booze, violence and regret lurking around every corner. There are sad folks using other sad people to make themselves feel better, families losing their farms, and the loneliness and stillness that come with loss. But they still manage to party at the local juke joint, look back on better days, and keep an...

While more mainstream country acts bluster about rednecks and hillbillies like it's a fashion statement, Kentucky's Chris Knight sings about rural fatalism and alienation with razor-sharp perception and narrative aplomb. By his own admission, the "body count's not as high" on his Drifter's Church debut, but the impact is just as powerful as Knight ups both the rock and violence quotient on "...

It would be easy to say Chris Knight seems to be standing still. From album to album, his style doesn't vary much, nor does his subject matter stray far from the themes of his first album: the hardships of country living, the desperate tenuous brutality of relationships, the dangers of trot-lining with the wrong people or hanging out with the wrong woman. But whether Knight is standing still...