If I were asked which new band I liked the most, I wouldn't hesitate in saying Black Stone Cherry. The band's Southern Rock roots come through in every guitar riff and song.
Founded in Edmonton, Ky., Black Stone Cherry features Chris Robertson (guitar and vocals), Ben Wells (guitar), Jon Lawhon (bass guitar) and John Fred Young (drums). I liked everything I've heard from the band so far, and that's not usual for me.
It's hard to nail down exactly what their music sounds like. They obviously have the Southern Rock thing nailed, but there's more to it than that. They utilize drop tunings in their songs, kind of like Godsmack, but they don't follow that band's song format.
Black Stone Cherry has some great hard riffs. "Blind Man," the kick-off song from the band's new album
Folklore and Superstition has become one of my favorite songs. But this isn't a one-song album by any stretch of the imagination.
"Reverend Wrinkle" and "Soulcreek" are bound to become big hits for the band. Again, hard driving riffs lead the listener into well written verses and choruses that you can’t help but sing along to.
The band also has a softer side that they show in a couple of songs, my favorite being "Things My Father Said."
Black Stone Cherry is one of those bands that you can't help but like. Seriously, I'd be surprised to find someone that didn't like their music.
I'm going to focus on guitarist Ben Wells for this article. Wells uses a Peavey 6505 amp, which is a later generation model of the Eddie Van Halen-developed 5150. Wells also uses an MXR Zakk Wylde Overdrive, a Cry Baby Wah, Rotovibe and a Budda Wah.
Wells uses several Les Pauls, including Les Paul Customs, Standards and Studio models.
I'm going to change up the software I use to make the tone on my computer. This time I'm going to use Line 6's recently released POD Farm.
I have a lot of the same analog gear that Wells does, so I can appreciate his tone. I'm going to keep the computer tone as simple as he does with his analog gear. Line 6 has a nice model of Peavey's 6505 called the Mississippi Criminal. I'll use the Criminal in this tone with these settings: Input 1; Bass 9; Middle 5; Treble 8; Presence 7; and Volume 7. The cabinet model I used is a 4x12 1968 Green with a 57 Mic, on axis.
I put in a Wah, so that it can be used with the tone if you like. Next I added a Screamer, but with fairly conservative settings. Since the 6505 is a high-gain amp, we don't need a lot of gain on the Screamer — we'll use it to shape the tone instead of adding a lot of overdrive. The Screamer settings are: Drive 12 percent; Gain 17 percent; and Tone 66 percent. I also added a Reverb with settings of: Predelay 41 percent; Decay 28 percent; Tone 50 percent; and Mix 23 percent.
That's it for Black Stone Cherry. I hope you have as much fun playing these songs as I do.