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LSi - December 2014
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Black Stone Cherry
Words & pictures by Steve Moles

2. ontour
www.lsionline.co.uk
LSi - December 2014
41
It’s always good to throw yourself into the unknown once
in a while, and when I saw Black Stone Cherry (BSC)
pop-up on the UK arena circuit listings I was sorely
tempted to step into that dark place. A quick trawl of
YouTube soon convinced me this was a good idea. Here
was a no-nonsense rock band from Kentucky:
determinedly against-trend, they sang songs about Mary
Jane and made videos starring rock chicks with long hair
and wistful faces strumming their guitars under a freeway
flyover that spanned a leafy Appalachian valley. Feeling
isolated and alone? I should say so. That said, how they
came to be plying the arena circuit still eluded me.
The show transpired to be a three-band celebration of hard
rock, and while I can’t really say anyone will miss Theory of
a Deadman when they finally get consumed by worms,
Airbourne were an altogether different beast. I’m sure it’s
already been said a thousand times before, but if Angus
Young could sing as well as play guitar he would be
Airbourne’s frontman, Joel O’Keeffe. This band are
unashamedly hardwired into the AC/DC mould and pull it
off with some thrash and panache. So good were they in
fact, that I started to become a little afraid for BSC. 24
Marshall cabinets stacked two high dominated the stage,
with a pair of Ampeg SVT cabinets flanking them for good
measure. Swinging long hair, check; bare-chested lead
guitar, check; bourbon-soaked raucous vocals, check -
full-on testosterone rock. As a warm-up act they’d be hard
to beat at any festival and I really enjoyed them even if they
were ear-whistling loud (that’s what ear plugs are for).
But I needn’t have fretted over BSC: their opening song
immediately put distance between them and Airbourne.
While they might not have had quite the power and
intensity of Airbourne, they more than made up for it with
melody and harmonies. This was thinking man’s rock with
a hard edge; I nearly went and had a tattoo.
What I’d seen on YouTube made me think Lynyrd Skynyrd
meets Nickelback, and while there were echoes of that
combination in the live performance, they were, to their
credit, an entirely distinct entity. You could smell the
Hickory smoke in their tunes but there was a touch of
Chicago blues to put an edge on things. They also had
one other extremely powerful asset in their inventory - they
were the most charming and engaging band on stage:
none of that ‘Fucking-A Sheffield’ - these guys talked like
they would be sharing a beer with some of their fans
afterwards, the familiarity with the crowd was something to
behold.
Sound
Easily the biggest part of a BSC show is the sound.
While some of the songs I heard were now vaguely
familiar to me, the live rendition featured frequent
forays into uncharted exploration. Front-of-house
engineer Brandon Henbest has a big
job - these forays aren’t indulgent noodling
through the Southern book of guitar clichés,
these guys can play with some invention;
that, more than anything, is what gives them
the edge.
“I’ve just got four guys to look after,” Henbest began,
modestly enough. “Drums, bass and two guitars, with
guitar and bass also providing backing vocals. Vocal mics
are all Sennheiser - 935 capsules for BV, with lead on
a 945. I chose the 945 for a bit more clarity; he sings right
in front of the drums and our drummer really hits hard, so
that tighter pattern is really helpful. It is loud on stage - all
live cabinets, though all the guys use IEMs - but that level
has influenced what I do a great deal.”
Henbest seeks and achieves a remarkably clean sound:
after the relative din of Airbourne, this was well defined.
“Chris Robertson [lead vox] sings on the mic and he has
a big voice with powerful delivery, so it’s just spill I’m
concerned with, not gain. But for the guitars I’m using
Palmers.” I’d not heard of these before. “They’re a speaker
simulator, like a DI, you just plug the amp head straight
into it. I do have [Sennheiser MD] 421s on the guitar
cabinets as well, but they’re for the monitors. The Palmers
give me the guitars totally clean and have a good cabinet
sound. I don’t have to do a lot of treatment, practically
none in fact, the guys provide all the effects, and this way
they are rendered live as they intend.
“I even use one on the Bass,” he continues. “That’s a new
thing: I had a spare and thought I’d try it and was surprised
that it brings a little more warmth to the Bass sound, but I
also take a feed out of a Sansamp on the Pre, plus there is,
again, a 421 for the monitors. The guys all prefer the mic
sound in their ears. A friend of mine introduced me to the
Palmers just as I came into my twenties. He’d heard them
on a Joe Satriani tour he’d worked and suggested them.
Then, when I came to work for BSC we were touring in
support and the main act used them and let me try a spare
they carried. I’ve been using them ever since. The key is
consistency: you get the same sound whatever the room
you play, and with BSC we tend to move between little
clubs to big arenas, even in the space of a tour like this.
We’d opened in the UK last night at the Hydro in Glasgow;
the gig before we were in a place that held just seven
hundred.”
Henbest indicated that BSC are in the midst of growing
their audience and that Europe is their strongest market,
with the UK at the top - hence this venture into arenas.
Readers should note the Sheffield Motorpoint was draped
down to maybe 5,000 capacity, but then what’s the
alternative? Four nights at the City Hall - and you’d never
squeeze Airbourne on there. There is an argument for a
venue circuit to sit between the large theatres (typically
3,000 cap max) and the 10k and above arenas, but I guess
if the existing arenas can make this reduced capacity work
financially, then why not?
“The kit is all Sennheiser and Neumann,” Henbest
continued. “I have to be really careful with the kit: one of
my primary concerns is the physical size of the
microphone. The drummer (John Fred Young) can get
pretty wild and did trash a mic last night. So despite a big
kit - he has two kick drums and a 20” floor Tom that is
really a kick on its side - I don’t use too many mics, and
what I do use is all pretty standard.”

3. Henbest has been with BSC since 2010 and
they are his main act. “I do sound for my local
church in Kentucky when I’m not touring, but
since I started with them I’ve got other work with
Sleeper Agent, Cadillac 3 and Paper Kites. The
funny thing is, BSC are the only hard rock band
amongst them,” which nicely qualifies his
mixing abilities.
A DiGiCo SD10 sits out front, and system
suppliers Britannia Row have also provided
a Midas PRO2 for Airbourne. “I’ve always got on
with DiGiCo; we shared an SD10 with Theory
earlier this year and I really liked it. It’s a real
workhorse - all the compressors and gates are
perfect for what I need. I have selected a Tube
[the DiGiCo D-TuBe] on each vocal channel to
warm up what I get from the pre’s. Between the
mix busses and the groups I’m easily able to
shape the sound I want, wrapping the BVs
around the lead vocal, placing the guitars
forward in the mix without overwhelming the
vocal. Effects-wise I don’t do much, just some
Large Hall on the snare mic, and that’s for the
drum solo where he does some really nice
snare rolls; and I use a little Plate on the vocals.
That’s about it.”
The PA system is L-Acoustics K1, “and the guys
from Brit Row have been fantastic. This is just
our second UK arena show and I’ve never
worked with them before, but already
I appreciate how knowledgeable they are. The
Hydro has some issues around the low end,
unwanted rumbling, and hey, I encounter all
sorts in the different venues we play, but having
someone on your crew who’s been there before
and can give you good advice about what’s
going on is a real bonus.”
How come Henbest is working with a company
he’s never worked with before? “Colin West is
our production manager and he put this leg
together for us while he was in Europe with
Soundgarden for the summer. This arena leg is
the only part of our European tour that carries
production and being a short run we needed
production supply nailed early to ensure we got
what we wanted. For me, I’m happiest with
either K1 or the d&b J-Series, though I have
a Meyer system at Church and like that too. But
for touring this band the K1 or J are best. Colin
had used Brit Row for Soundgarden and liked
them; he brought that experience to the table
and I said the system is good so let’s do it.
I came in today, ran my recordings from last
night’s show in Glasgow - I track every show -
and after a few tweaks I was really happy.”
As I mentioned at the beginning, the band do
drift off from their recorded sound: “I don’t do
scenes,” is Henbest’s response. “They could
jam at any moment, so I just lay with it,” a laid-back
understatement of how, despite its hard
rock edges, this show can be delightfully
musical.
Monitors
I’m introduced to ‘British Mike’ as the band’s
monitor man, though to listen to Michael
Roland’s accent you’d be hard pushed to say
where he is from. The reason soon becomes
clear. “This is my first run with BSC but I work
with a bunch of big name acts in Canada - Big
Wreck who supported Motley Crue earlier this
year; Marianas Trench, a Canadian arena act,
and Call Me Maybe. Doing a headline tour with
Big Wreck we had Theory of a Deadman in
support; they called me afterwards to do some
work for them and they shared some shows
with BSC. One night BSC’s truck arrived late,
I threw together a mix for them in ten minutes
and they loved it.”
While it sounds like good fortune shone on
Roland, he is not afraid to go looking for it.
I asked if he ever ventured front-of-house?
“I don’t really do front-of-house much, in fact
I started out studying photography at college.
I left England for Australia to try my luck out
there but got tired of it all - I didn’t want to end
up a wedding photographer. I happened to flick
through a sound mag of some sort and although
I’d never really wanted to be a musician, I liked
the idea of working with sound, so I went to SAE
to learn. It was six months before I realised what
you learn is not the full picture and dropped out.
A local guy at Byron Bay on the East Coast,
where I was staying, gave me a gig at his club,
the Back Room. I worked there for almost two
years and learned to do everything, but again
I got itchy feet and went to Canada where I have
some family.” He has since settled in Toronto
and has a Canadian partner, hence the
indecipherable accent.
ontour
www.lsionline.co.uk
From top:
L-R, Britannia Row’s PA crew: Terence Hulkes,
Colin Burrell and Craig Ross (system tech).
The L-Acoustics K1 and K2 system, supplied by
Britannia Row Productions.
Brandon Henbest, FOH sound engineer.
Mike Roland, monitor engineer.
Above, left: LD Joe McKinney.
Above, right: Colin West, production manager.
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“When I first arrived I ended up working in
Calgary at a 300-capacity club and soon picked
up a monitor gig with Down, an offshoot of
Pantera. I really love doing monitors and enjoy
the direct contact with the artists - you can see
the fruits of your efforts immediately on their
faces. Ever since then I’ve been getting calls.”
His ability appears solid enough, and as BSC
had experienced his work before he was
a natural shoe-in when Colin West called. “He’s
been with us just two shows and it’s going very
smooth,’ said West.
Like Henbest, Roland singled out the backing
he got from Brit Row: “The thing is, they were
thrown in at the deep end. We all flew in from
different places, me, Colin, Brandon - and they
pieced it together really quickly.”
Roland has an Avid Profile. “I need something
I know. I like to know where I need to massage
the console; they all have their own character.
I try not to colour the sound too much but I do
use a few Plug-ins: the C6 I swear by; the NLS,
which is a pre-amp drive emulator of the SSL
EMI console; the V-Comp; SSL G Buss Comp,
and the API 550B which I find breathes a bit of
life into the digital conversion - it really takes the
flatness out that you get with guitar sound.
“When I started with the band - that first ten-minute
throw-it-together gig notwithstanding -
I tried to take the rock band approach, all super-tight
and isolated. But actually what they want is
more organic, Chris [Robertson, lead vocals,
lead guitar] totally flipped that idea on its head -
he wants the room in there; it’s unusual the
amount of ambience mic he wants in there.
So room acoustics play a big part and I do have
to fluctuate the presence constantly, so when
I set-up I shape the mix for the empty room,
probably only needing very little, and then pull it
in for the show.
“Like Brandon, I don’t write scenes: for
example, there are two positions for backing
vocals, downstage left and right and up at the
back walkway, and both men move around
a lot, and switch sides. I have Opto-Gates on
the mics to open the channel for me while
I identify who is singing where; they work pretty
good though there are lighting scenes that can
throw them. The IEM system is Sennheiser
2050, and the guys have just switched to 1964
plugs and seem pretty happy with them.
Probably the best tool I have added is a Black
Lion Clock on the end of the digital mic feed;
that really improves clarity, though it also draws
attention to those console characteristics
I mentioned, so it’s a good and bad thing.”
Lights
He probably won’t like me for saying it, but it’s
hard to escape the likeness: LD Joe McKinney
both looks and sounds like actor Richard
Dreyfuss, circa Jaws, when he was young, vital
and compelling. That said, McKinney is a more
diffident character - but there is something more
to this . . .
“I’m not really an LD,” he reveals. “My main
work is editing for video and TV.” You might
assume this means music videos, but not so.
“It’s what I studied at University; although I’ve
done the lights for BSC on and off for the last
five years, it’s editing that is my trade.
I especially like working on animation and
graphics; that’s one of the reasons I moved to
the UK two years ago: things are much more
advanced here in terms of what’s being done,
and the attitude is better, much more open.”
So just how did he get to be the band’s LD?
“I grew up in Kentucky with these guys and
spent a couple of years on the road with them.
We came over here with Nickelback a few years
ago and when the band then took off to write
their third album, Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,
I sat back and tried to evaluate what I really
wanted to do. I went for editing and got my first
job in St Louis, then I moved on to Houston,
and eventually to London. You might say I was
having my quarter-life crisis, but as I said, I’d
toured here and knew I liked it and as far as
post production editing is concerned Soho in
London is where it’s at.” McKinney has two
retainers, has filed for UK residency and is
self-evidently a successful editor.
“But when Ben [Wells, rhythm guitar] called me
about this arena run, I found that being
freelance I could re-schedule myself and take
on the tour. PRG provides the system; it had
been a while since I’d touched a console, so
I was little anxious.”
An initial glance at the rig when entering the
venue led me to comment that the band had
given him a generous budget. “The design is
simple,” says McKinney, “the concept of the
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Cherry Pits & Pieces
• Production - Colin West: When I got
the call to do this I was still out with
Soundgarden, so I sat down with
Kevin Cauley, Soundgarden’s LD. He
drew something up, we sent it to Joe
Miller, BSC’s tour manager. He and
Joe (McKinney) added some bits and
sent it to PRG. John Lawhon, in the
band, did the stage design - that’s not
so unusual for these guys - and
Robert Achlimbari at All Access put it
together. It works very well.”
The stage set is simple enough:
a riser across the back has a broad
ramp to each side, giving the band
easy running-around space for their
high energy performance. A pair of
small, maybe half-metre-wide, posing
platforms flank the centre vocal mic,
sitting between BV mic positions and
the centre mic stand. The great thing
about these and the back ramps is
the two guitar players’ willingness to
use them. The amount of movement
on stage is a real boost to the
performance.
• On Britannia Row Productions:
“The Brit Row thing was more direct”,
continued West. “They were already
doing a great job for us with
Soundgarden, so I called Lez Dwight,
my contact at Brit Row, said I wanted
a rig of K1/K2 for the arenas and
gave him the dates. Considering the
short run, everyone gave us an
unbelievable price’ the production
rehearsal at LS-Live was just great,
the crew up there were really
supportive - we even enjoyed that
strange little pub just up the road -
and it was really nice to see the
band’s design realised.”
• On Special Effects: “The only thing
that’s thrown me on this run was our
special effects. We have six cryo’ jets
from PyroJunkies: we submitted all
the paper work and have had OK’s
back from all the venues, but for our
first show in Glasgow they weren’t
allowed. I’m not quite sure what went
wrong there - maybe I didn’t submit
correctly, but it’s just blasts of frozen
air so I was a little disappointed. But
the band took it OK, they’re not a big
part of the show, they just punctuate
a couple of big moments.” Actually
the use of the cryo jets I saw was
rather tasty . . . rather than follow the
beat of the song, they pulsed briefly,
as if building up a head of steam just
ahead of a big burst of energy from
the band.

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front and mid trusses being split in the middle
and shaped to present as a diamond en pointe
gives a lot of depth and makes the rig look far
bigger than it is. On the front, mid and rear there
are 12 VL3500s on each, a fifty-fifty mix of Spot
and Wash, plus I have another three lamps each
side on short trusses running up/down stage.
“Apart from that there are 23 Atomic 3Ks - this
band need a lot of strobes - and I have a dozen
Sharpys, three each on floor-standing upright
trusses behind the band’s rear walkway. The
Sharpys are my workhorse effect, while the
Vari*Lites carry the band, wash the stage and
light the backdrop. There are also 16 four-cell
Moles spread evenly around the trusses. I could
have gone with VL3000 but PRG had the 3500s
and who was I to say no? The great thing for me
was the pre-production time that Colin arranged
at LS-Live. We had a day to rig then the band
came in the next day, so I had that night to
myself. Previously I had done most of my work
on the original GrandMA, and had used the new
MA 2 before I stopped. I don’t so much build
a show song by song as assemble a bunch of
sequences. Knowing the material as well as I do,
that means I can respond when they fall into a
jam session. I suppose it’s because I’m used to
them, but I’m much more comfortable with a set
of palettes and a handful of effects. It’s not a total
busk, but with the amount of time available in
production rehearsals I needed something
flexible to get started. It’s by no means there yet,
but it soon will be.”
Considering McKinney has had his rig on tour
for just two shows it was remarkably fluid; he
certainly knows the band’s chops, no matter
how free-form they become. Another couple of
alternative painted backdrops on Kabuki to
relieve the tedium of the Prairie vista with
mountains on the near horizon would have been
nice, but that was a band thing, so he had no
choice. “The thing is, they like to be seen, they
are as happy to be in a little 300-capacity club
in Amarillo Texas as they are at Wembley Arena,
just so long as they’re in touch with the
audience. In that sense what I do can appear
club-like, and even with so few lights I don’t feel
the need to always use the whole rig. At the
same time, when it gets heavy, then I make sure
the strobes go crazy.”
As do the Sharpys, 3500 Spots and pulses from
the Moles. McKinney had a beautiful movement
cue that really caught my eye about halfway into
the show, one that is probably indicative of
those sequences he mentioned when talking of
production rehearsals. Nothing complex, it saw
the Sharpys in a gentle ballyhoo come to
a standstill and a wide beam circular gobo in
the Spots then picked up the motion exactly as
the Sharpys stopped and took the ballyhoo out
into the audience. Like so many such things,
timing was everything and it looked a lot crisper
than it sounds in the written word.
How had he got on with the MA2? “Well, there
have been a few software updates since my last
time, so it’s taken me a while to find where
those things you really want are hidden in
among all the other features, but I’m more than
comfortable with it. Even coming from editing,
which has quite different pressures in how you
operate, the MA2 just makes sense to me -
I love the console.”
As he had raised the subject himself, I asked
how the two disciplines compare? “They do
have similarities in that both require you to tell
a story, but lighting all happens in the moment,
whereas editing is very considered, so the
thinking is quite different. It has taken me these
last couple of days to switch into the more
immediate way of thinking and that’s been
interesting to experience. But I’ve been lucky,
the crew have been fantastic and that has
made the whole process a million times
easier.”
In what way? “Simple things, like getting the rig
up in short order. We have sound-check at 3pm
because of the other acts, and I’ve been able to
grab a couple of hour’s quiet desk time before
sound-check to work on the show. You can’t be
trying to reorganise cue stacks when there’s
a whole lot of noise going on. I know that might
sound weird, but the concentration required to
do that is quite different from the concentration
you need to run a show.”
So having got comfortably behind the console
again, is he tempted to stay? “My career as an
LD is direct from BSC: this is a special group of
guys for me. So editing is what I do, but if they
call, I will be here.” McKinney will get to exercise
both skills in the not-too-distant future: the band
are recording the show in Birmingham with
a view to releasing a live DVD.
Craig Ross, System Tech
Craig Ross, Terence Hulkes and Colin
Burrell constitute the Britannia Row
PA crew. Ross has been a system
tech for Brit Row since arriving from
New Zealand five years ago. “Initially
I learnt my craft with Oceania in New
Zealand,” he said, “but I’ve continued
to learn a lot here with Brit Row.”
I pondered what Oceania think about
losing their staff to the northern
hemisphere, but suppose it is in
some ways inevitable because of
their remote location. Ross agreed,
and added: “Although Brit Row has,
to my knowledge, employed many
sound techs from Australia and New
Zealand over the years, we currently
have a big influx of some really good
Italians.” No doubt a reflection of the
sagging Italian economy? “Maybe.
Either way they’re good guys,” -
which rather fits with Brit Row’s
global connections and its history of
hiring good people from all over the
world.
What about the rig? “Interestingly,
after five years in the UK this is my
first time in the Sheffield Arena.
A lovely room to work, with the back
wall covered with drapes it has
made the rig easy enough. Main
left/right hangs of K1 with two Kara
at the bottom of each for down fill,
and four K2 off to each side for the
closer seating in the tiers to the
sides of stage. Front-fills are also
Kara with nine Subs stacked three-high
per side.”
I had listened to the K2s earlier in
the day, standing directly on-axis
when Airbourne were sound-checking.
Having never had the
opportunity to hear them alone
before I was impressed by the
powerful delivery at approximately
20m. I asked Ross, ‘Do you think
with the Arena curtained off for
a smaller audience you could cover
a room like this with just a K2
system?’ “Possibly, but they don’t
have the throw of the K1. K1 does
the room comfortably, throwing 60
to 70 metres, so there is no need for
delays.”
Considering the sustained high levels
I heard during this show I’m inclined
to agree the longer-throw, more
powerful K1 was the better option,
but if this was Olly Murs, say, then it
might be worth considering. As Ross
said, the room is easy enough, but
that doesn’t mean you can just
throw it up, and he certainly didn’t
do that; coverage was very
consistent and the sub array in
particular was very potent, flapping
the trouser well beyond the mixing
desk - an essential ingredient for any
hard rock show.