Kentucky Headhunters – On Safari

Kentucky headhunters are a band that has been around in one form or another for almost 50 years, first as “Itchy brother” before splitting then reuniting with a new name – The headhunters.  Finding another band with that name led to a quick change to Kentucky headhunters, and thats what they’ve been for the last 30 years.  In recent years they’ve gained a lot more attention worldwide thanks to the fact that band member Richard Young’s son, John Fred is part of Black Stone Cherry and that band have talked about how they were influenced by Kentucky Headhunters.  This led to Kentucky Headhunters doing their first European tour in 2015 including a great set at Ramblin’ Man Fair (on a day headlined by Black Stone Cherry).

Southern rock is a genre that almost died out and ten years ago you’d have been hard pressed to find a new Southern Rock album, but in recent years it’s had a revival in popularity and it’s become very popular.  Kentucky Headhunters arent quite Southern Rock, nor are they Country rock – they’re a mix of both with some blues thrown in for good measure.

This is their 12th album, and having won a Grammy award amongst countless others in the past, there’s no doubting the fact that these are  group of talented musicians and with years of practice they know how to make great music and play it flawlessly.  As you listen you’re constantly being surprised by the variety – there’s blues rock, southern rock and far more, and tracks such as “Rainbow shine” just defy categorisation, while “Jukebox full of blues” has more of a late 50s/early 60s rock and roll sound.  The album ends with an instrumental – “Governors cup”, which is actually a great way to end the album.

Well, this album wasnt quite what I expected – I’d expected a Southern rock/Country rock album, but instead I got far more than that.  Yes it has those elements at the core but there’s so much more than that here that this is one of those albums where you can listen multiple times and still hear something new each time.

An excellent album, and it’s easy to see why Black Stone Cherry were influenced by them.

Track listing:

1. Beaver creek mansion
2. Deep south blues again
3. I am the hunter
4. Caught in a dream
5. Crazy Jim
6. Big Time
7. Lowdown Memphis town blues
8. Rainbow shine
9. Way down yonder
10. Jukebox full of blues
11. God loves a rolling stone
12. Governor’s cup