Album Review: Montgomery Gentry – Folks Like Us

Release Date: June 9, 2015

Label: Blaster Records

Producer: Michael Knox

Kitch’s Rating: 8.5/10

If you go right back to 1999, when Montgomery Gentry – the duo comprised of Kentuckians Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry – burst onto the scene, and listen to the tracks from their debut album, Tattoos and Scars, you hear something that very much resembles the sort of music that is propelling modern-day artists like Brantley Gilbert and Jason Aldean into the country stratosphere. 

That’s right, back before Aldean and his ilk were singing about girls, trucks, beer, summer nights and small towns, and doing so with the sort of screaming guitars and thumping drums that wouldn’t be out of place on a hard rock album. They share the same producer, Michael Knox, with Aldean, and you can definitely hear that. Make no mistake, it’s Montgomery Gentry who started the bro-country craze that’s gripped country music for a few years now, and shows no sign of letting go. It’s safe to say, though, that we won’t see the duo collaborating with Nelly or Ludacris or any other rapper anytime soon.

In that light, it’s ironic that the new iteration of country rock artists have pushed Montgomery Gentry down from the top of the charts, but diminished mainstream popularity and a change of labels – their second label change since early 2011, after leaving Average Joe’s in 2014 for Blaster Records – hasn’t made the duo forget how to make good, edgy southern-rock. There’s a lot of guitar on this album, and it’s great.

After four years without a new studio recording, it’s been a long time coming for fans, and it’s good to be able to report that Folks Like Us is a very strong entry in the Montgomery Gentry discography. As you’d expect, it delivers a stack of hard-driving anthems about small town America, which has long been the duo’s stock in trade. The title track is great, as is the first single ‘Headlights’, definitely a party anthem, and, at the moment, my favourite. The catchy banjo-driven riff that underlines this song will definitely get into your head. And stay there.

I’m also really enjoying the first track, ‘We Were Here’, which us a retrospective tale, two men looking back on the lives they’ve led. It’s not hard to imagine that there’s a little tinge of the autobiographical in that one. Same goes for ‘That’s Just Living’ – another track that is about mature-aged men taking stock in their lives. Considering Gentry and Montgomery are at that stage, it’s not surprising. 

Folks Like Us employs both party songs and more introspective songs, and works very well as a result. The rocking ‘Hillbilly Hippies’ is a fun, backwoods anthem that hits all the clichés but still sounds original. Montgomery Gentry are one of those groups who put out songs that are instantly recognisable. You know them when they come on your radio or iPod.

Of course, there’s a song about a dirt road, heading down to the levee with some girls and a jar of moonshine. That’s almost expected on a Montgomery Gentry album, but it’s a good tune, a sort of slowed-down dirty southern rock anthem, and it’s fun. The country traditionalists may scoff at the lyrical nature of these songs, but if they sound good – and these songs do sound good – what’s the problem?

If you enjoy your country with a little rock, go out and pick up the new Montgomery Gentry release. Folks Like Us won’t disappoint.