Flyin' High With Drivin-N-Cryin

In the wake of the mid-80s explosion of a new Southern rock paradigm spearheaded by R.E.M. and including bands like Jason & the Scorchers, Pylon, Guadalcanal Diary, the B-52s and other diverse tonemasters, the onus was on Drivin-N-Cryin to deliver. Sporting a unique sound, a Georgia zip code, and frontman Kevn [sic] Kinney's literate lyrics, media handicappers considered the band a sure bet to reach the upper regions of the sales charts. Maybe not stratospheric, R.E.M. levels of success, but DNC was certainly expected to hover somewhere above the horizon.

Formed in 1986, Drivin-N-Cryin released its debut album on the popular Atlanta club 688's independent record label. Subsequently signed to Island Records by the label's knowledgeable A&R genius Kim Buie, the band's early discs mixed DNC's rural bluegrass and country leanings with a growing tendency towards unbridled hard rock. Coupled with Kinney's intelligent, folkish lyrics, the band's initial albums stirred up a fair bit of interest on the college radio circuit.

With the fourth Drivin-N-Cryin album, Fly Me Courageous, the band worked in Memphis with producer Geoff Workman. A journeyman producer whose credits included Motley Crue and Queen, Workman had a better idea on how to incorporate the band's hard rock…hell, almost metallic…undercurrents with their signature twang. The result proved to be pure magic, a three-dimensional work that combined all of the various facets of the Drivin-N-Cryin sound. Fly Me Courageous would become the band's most popular, enduring, and critically-acclaimed album.

The engaging "Around The Block Again" kicks off Fly Me Courageous, Kinney's nasally vocals spitting out his poetic lyrics above a pounding soundtrack. A recurring circular riff swims around the vocals as a generally chaotic, cacophonic mix of guitars, bass and drums wreaks havoc in the background. It's a great way to open the album, with a hook big enough to reel in the most reticent listener.

The album only gets better from there. "Chain Reaction" boasts of a funky Southern rhythm and metallic guitars, with a little timely cowbell thrown in for the stray BOC fan looking for cheap thrills. Kinney goes all Rufus Thomas on us at the end, struttin' around with a soulful swagger as the song flames out. The title track is monster, featuring a BIG beat, bigger riffs, and dark, brooding vocals. It became the band's first mainstream rock hit, moving up to #19 on the charts. Live, this sucker KILLED, and I should know 'cause I witnessed it with me own little eyes and ears!

Fly Me Courageous would spawn two additional songs that would hit the rock charts – "Build A Fire" (#15), which was built on a chooglin' riff, a staggered infectious beat and Kinney's best hard rock vox; and "The Innocent" (#31), a more understated affair that offered some delicious acoustic guitar, some scalpel-sharp electric guitar, and lots of everything else. Personally, I always thought that the label missed the boat by not releasing "Let's Go Dancing" as a single. The song's heavy acoustic strumming, and Kinney's urgent vocals and oblique lyrics, are paired with a perfectly delightful pop-folk sensibility that would have worked the body hard on college radio in the early-90s. "Let's Go Dancing" would always stop a crowd in their tracks, scoring a TKO whenever DNC played it live.

The remainder of Fly Me Courageous pursued a similar yin/yang course, cleverly combining introspective folkish moments like the bittersweet, semi-psychedelic "For You" with the country-flavored hard rock of "Together." The album-closing "Rush Hour" verges the edge of becoming a thrash-metal tune, Kinney's 100mph vocal turn supported by lightning-quick six-string shredding and thunderous drumbeats.

A large part of the album's moderate commercial success can be credited to the touring done by the band in support of Fly Me Courageous. Almost all of the album's songs lent themselves to the live environment, and that is where the band truly excelled, anyway. It was hard not to like these songs when watching them performed live. DNC didn't have the charm of their friends in R.E.M., but you could depend on them cranking it out night after night on stage, whether in front of two people (like they did one night in Nashville) or a couple thousand.

Kevn Kinney was an unlikely rock & roll frontman, a sort of hulking fanboy (much like yours truly) who started out as a zine publisher and music critic. An erudite lyricist with Dylanesque tendencies, Kinney's vocals were technically unspectacular but strangely likeable. Guitarist Buren Fowler, formerly R.E.M.'s roadie, added a crucial dimension to the band's sound, while bassist Tim Nielsen and drummer Jeff Sullivan were a solid rhythm section, providing a lot more subtlety to the DNC sound that it initially appears.

Although subsequent Drivin-N-Cryin albums had their moments, and would spawn minor college radio hits, only 1995's underrated Wrapped In Sky would come close to achieving the near-perfect alignment of the forces that would make Fly Me Courageous the classic of left-field Southern rock that it has become considered. It says something that, better than 20 years down the road, Kinney, Nielsen and Sullivan still comprise the core of the band, and that Drivin-N-Cryin continues to perform like it's 1989.

Kinney is quoted saying about starting Drivin-N-Cryin, "I wanted it to be a psychedelic garage band bordering on English blues. I wanted us to sound like a mix tape you might make, with Nick Lowe, Hank Williams, Ted Nugent – all these weird guys, like college radio used to be." With Fly Me Courageous, DNC hit the mark with ease…. (American Beat Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Fly Me Courageous from Amazon.com)