If Colin Linden (The Band, Bob Dylan, Bruce Cockburn), Stephen Fearing (multiple JUNO Award winner), and Tom Wilson (Junkhouse, Lee Harvey Osmond), have learned anything in the past 17 years it’s that Blackie and the Rodeo Kings is a journey, not a destination. The plan was to take time out of their own solo careers to make High or Hurtin’, a tribute album to the great songwriter Willie P. Bennett. However, once tapped into the locomotive energy of Bennett’s songs, the three songwriters found together they were making some of the finest roots-inspired music in all of North America. So, the train kept rolling and B&RK went on to release seven albums, culminating in the 2011 release of Kings and Queens. You’d think that a proclamation to the throne shared with the likes of Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Serena Ryder, and Lucinda Williams would be a good place to stop, but the road had other plans for The Rodeo Kings. It took them to South, their 2014 release written around Colin Linden’s Nashville table and recorded in his studio, featuring some of their strongest original material to date.