Carrying on

With their 1999 debut, Tattoos & Scars, the Kentucky-born duo of Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry carved out a robust niche by tapping into the rowdy, long-haired country-boy spirit and stylings of '70s "outlaw" kings like Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr., and Charlie Daniels. The duo has only one original song on Carrying On, their second album, and they mostly rely on studio musicians for their energetic neo-honky-tonk and full-tilt retro Southern-rock instrumental backing. Even so, Carrying On (with its telling double-meaning title) is a much more fully realized and compelling work than their bestselling debut. The antiheroes who inhabit honky-tonk ballads and country-rock anthems like "She Couldn't Change Me," "The Fine Line," "Lucky to Be Here," "Black Jack Fletcher and Mississippi Sam," and their spirited remake of Jennings's outlaw classic "Ramblin' Man" drive too fast, drink and smoke too much, show disdain for urban affectations, and occasionally even contemplate suicide when life and love go bad. And they make no apologies for it. In country's somewhat stifling era of yuppified political correctness, Montgomery Gentry's unreconstructed, unapologetic redneck brashness and fervor blows across the musical landscape like a hearty and welcome "southeaster." --Bob Allen