More than anything, the South is known for its music and its strong family ties. Both are highlighted with Black Stone Cherry, a Kentucky band that redefines southern rock for a modern audience. By any standard, BSC is unconventional: they take the larger-than-life mystique of classic rock and modernize it with a driving attack that is equal parts roots and modern hard rock. Few bands this young â?? none of the four members is older than 23, the youngest is 20 - sound this powerful or versatile. They're hard and heavy, but Black Stone Cherry is southern to the core, and they come by their love of music in genuine way: it's in their blood, and it's in their home.

BSC hails from Edmonton, a small town in south-central Kentucky that's in the middle of a dry (alcohol-prohibited) county, where there is very little to do. For many, including the members of BSC, music was their escape. And there was a lot of music around. "There's lots of great bluegrass and southern gospel groups which we all love," says Ben. Given all this music, it's no shock that the four members of BSC have a rich musical tradition in their own families, handed down from their grandparents, through their parents, to the band themselves. John Fred's father Richard is a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning Kentucky Headhunters, while Jon's Great-Uncle was a jazz drummer. Chris received his first guitar from his grandfather, who built instruments by hand, and learned his first chords from his dad. And it wasn't just their family that encouraged them to play: whenever Chris got into trouble at school, he wound up in the principal's office, jamming with the principal himself.

Surrounded by music and support down in Edmonton, Black Stone Cherry was able develop far away from the mainstream. "When you're from an area where you don't have the competition to be playing the same kind of music, you create your own style of music," explains John Fred. Robertson agrees: "being down here, in the middle of nowhere, you kind of have to come up with your own thing just to entertain yourself." Chris and John Fred began playing together while they were still teenagers in high school, with Jon and Ben joining them soon afterward, officially forming on June 4, 2001. Black Stone Cherry took over a century-old practice house that had been the territory of the Kentucky Headhunters since 1968 and rehearsed relentlessly. There was a special vibe in that practice house that emanated from the walls plastered with decades of rock memorabilia - posters, flyers, album covers. "We grew up looking at these posters and visualizing ourselves being on kids bedrooms," explains John Fred. "It pushed us to try to create something up to that level."


Appropriately, their debut album was recorded at home in Kentucky, with friends and family: John Fred's father along with engineer wiz David Barrick produced the album. Kevin Shirley of Aerosmith's "Nine Lives" and Led Zeppelin's "How the West was Won", mixed the record at the Palm's Studio in Las Vegas, Nevada. Chris says, "We went in and recorded it like they did in the old days. It's really human, it's not robotic or anything." "It's all about the groove," says Jon, the way it makes people move." This album captures the kinetic energy and force of the band's live show and it is proof that Black Stone Cherry are true southern originals. Or as Ben puts it: "We're a straight-ahead, in-your-face rock & roll band that tells the truth and sometimes stretches it beyond the imagination."