Montgomery Gentry

Montgomery Gentry's 1999 debut, Tattoos & Scars, was a testosterone-powered kick in the
ass to a country scene overflowing with crossover divas and faux cowboys crooning
endless paeans of undying devotion. On their second CD, Carrying On, the rough n' rowdy
duo continues to walk in the bootprints of their outlaw godfathers: Charlie Daniels, Hank
Jr. and Waylon Jennings -- and to make sure you don't forget those roots, they... More >

A tuneful, hard-hitting case study in the conservatism of the "rock" claimed by studio hotshots wherever popular music is manufactured in our once-great land. It's possible to imagine the identical beats and licks vitalized by, say, a younger John Anderson. But mixing them with male chauvinist reaction makes more sense, and turns them rancid. At a time when female spunk has become a Nashville cliché, these two putative roadhouse rats, one the brother of cowboy-hat millionaire John Michael Montgomery, inhabit a world where women are either saintly or compliant. They "rock" because they're "rebels," only what they rebel against is the present, in male-specific terms: "They say this way of life is done/But not for my father's son." Like their antecedent Charlie Daniels, they beg the question of whether they're also that kind of rebel. But attention ought be paid another high-profile couplet: "It ain't nobody's business what kind of flag I fly/'Cause that's my right." Uh-uh, stupid. The way flags work is that they're the business of everybody who sees them. That's why you fly them high--and why the other side tears them down. (Grade: B-)