Where many of Chris Knight’s country music contemporaries tend to muse on small town America with a Mayberry-esque nostalgia, Knight chooses to focus on the kinds of blue-collar struggles he experienced in his hometown of Slaughters, Kentucky. His eighth studio album kicks off with “In The Mean Time,” a gritty twang-rocker where acoustic guitars and auto-harp are contrasted with a Crazy Horse flavored distortion. Over this, Knight sings about how the destitute working man needs to turn toward homesteading and survivalist tactics when his own government is out to rob him. Those vocal harmonies in the chorus come courtesy of Buddy Miller who also sings in the following “Missing You,” another raw cut of Americana rock with Knight’s drawl howling in desperate torment over the breakup of vintage tube amps cranked loud. To reflect the economic anguish and hardscrabble times that Knight sings about, he enlisted producer Ray Kennedy who has done similar sounding mixes for Steve Earle and Reckless Kelly (among others). In the gripping title-track, Knight’s weathered rasp is accompanied by that of veteran John Prine.