Black Stone Cherry + Giovannie and the Hired Guns

Proud Kentucky rockers, Black Stone Cherry, emerge from a challenging few years triumphantly with a behemoth of an album, Screamin’ At The Sky (Mascot Records/Mascot Label Group), out September 29th. The four-piece band’s eighth album explodes with urgently-emotive pop-rock hooks; heartfelt, redemptive lyrics; headbanging riffs; powerful dynamics; thunderous drums; and its most thrilling musicianship yet. The 12-song collection is also BSC’s biggest and best sounding album. The self-produced studio record was tracked at a classic Kentucky theater, and it sounds like the guys are smashing down the hammer of the gods.
“The thesis of this record is adapting and moving on. In the last few years, a lot of what I knew from childhood went away. I lost my father, and now I am the oldest living man in my family,” says vocalist/guitarist Chris Robertson. He continues: “There is a lot of darkness on this album—I bared my soul—but it always foreshadows light at the end of the tunnel.” Adds guitarist/backing vocalist Ben Wells: “We see something beautiful letting pain out—you come out a better person.”
Screamin’ At The Sky has been a catharsis for Black Stone Cherry, and the quartet is savoring the calm after the storm. “A lot of bands would have thrown in the towel, but we came out the other side with some of the best music we’ve ever made,” Ben enthuses. Chris concludes: “ We’re in a great space—this band is as much as a family as it’s ever been.”