Pay attention. There’s a quiz at the end.
This line comes from a song that was released in 1990. It’s not even on Spotify these days, but man, I loved it.
“I got my education from the school of hard knocks. The pushers and shovers, you can stuff your rocks.” *Anyone who knows what it is gets my ….eternal respect (you can’t take it to the bank but it is dead valuable).
“Ain’t got no highbrow education, ain’t got no Ivy League degree. Tattoos, scars and a reputation. A hard life PHD.”
That one came out in 2024. It’s “Hard Life PHD” the lead song on “V”. The new album from Preacher Stone.
The unfussy title is in keeping with the record – their first in eight years. It’s Southern Rock, but it’s a bit more of a rabble-rouser than that. The organ on “My My My” grooves – and is a fitting tribute to keys man late Johnny Webb (who is honoured by having his signature on the cover)
But it is followed up by something that’s like a Testosterone-injected ZZ Top. On it Ronnie Riddle reckons he does his own stunts and there’s a swagger, but these boys are just a highly skilled Band Of Brothers. The reflective brilliance of “Till We Meet Again” might have you thinking you’ve heard it before, but you haven’t.
It would be fair to say, in honesty that you’ve heard stuff like it, but that would be to miss the point. Preacher Stone are authentic to their very core and Marty Hill and Ben Robinson are as good a guitar gun-slinging duo as there is around.
A lot has happened in the last eight years. It’s all in the blues of “Horse To Water”. The first line “I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned to swim” is typical of their approach.
There’s something of the biker gang about them. Not for nothing was one of their songs on the Sons Of Anarchy soundtrack, but it feels like this time they’ve pulled out all the stops. Glen Tabor (Bon Jovi, Aerosmith worked with them here).
This type of music has a rhythm and style all of its own. PS do it so well because they mix the organ into the groove, it means things like “Damage Is Done” for all that they sound like they’ve come straight off the Allman Brothers studio floor, have a life of their own.
The slower ones have a real skill too. “Rise Up” is as ballad-like as this gets. But its message of inclusion seems to be in keeping with the thread of togetherness that seems to run all through these 10 songs.
I can pay this record no higher compliment than saying this: when I got it a little while ago, I was scanning the track list, and assumed I knew what “Dance With The Devil” would be like. I didn’t.
The point is that “V” is not your “Southern Rock” cliché. “Rain Or Shine”, for example, has more in common with Tom Petty than it does Lynyrd Skynyrd (or to be honest one of Ricky Warwick’s solo albums, but that might be a more niche audience…)
And, as it ends with “Home”, another one from the slower end of their material, you can only reflect on the fact that whatever ups and downs over the last eight years that led them here, have been used to wonderful effect. As they say themselves: “hard lines and good times made me who I am today”.
Flying “V” indeed.
Rating 8.5/10
*Oh and it was “Hey Kid” by Johnny Crash, not that you cared…..
