Unlike many of its post-punk contemporaries, Drivin N Cryin never really went away. Over the past four decades, with a few breaks, the band has refined and redefined its neo-Southern rock as needed. That persistence is reflected in the reverence of peers and the quiet influence Drivin N Cryin has had on the younger alt-country and Americana artists who’ve emerged in its wake.
In the center of it all since 1985 is the seemingly unflappable Kevn Kinney, making music that’s adored by fans and critics yet too raw for the mainstream and too melodic to ever be forced underground. The Atlanta-based institution’s 10th studio LP, the self-released Crushing Flowers, feels like a distillation of that wonderful paradox. Stripped back to a core trio that includes co-founding bassist Tim Nielsen, Drivin N Cryin leas into its lived-in chemistry with a renewed enthusiasm on an album that feels less like a throwback than a reaffirmation.
Kinney is his typical unguarded self as he reflects in each song with a stream-of-consciousness flair.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “Mirror Mirror”
“I wrote this to try and understand the effects dementia and Alzheimer’s on my mother. It’s in support of my sisters, who are supporting her. She’s in a care facility in Milwaukee, and my visits with her are beautiful and heartbreaking. ‘I know you’re in there somewhere’ is the continuing theme—and as with most of my songs, it’s from a couple different viewpoints. The last verse addresses my own chances of getting a disease believed by many to be hereditary. In the last verse, I’m staring in the mirror in the beginning stages. Memories are clear and so alive, echoes of a past when I moved through life with sanity and grace.”
2) “Why Don’t You Go Around”
“Nothing like a little Atlanta traffic for inspiration. Go around!! Ha. That was the first idea I had. However, I like to try and include another perspective when putting a song together. The basic truth of the song is: Get out of your own way. There’s no competition in my world of rock ’n’ roll. Everyone wins. The minute you get in the basement with a couple friends and play that first song—‘Iron Man’ was mine—you’re on your way. You might turn that into a career of touring and festival stages, but even if you just stay in the basement and play every Wednesday to a couple friends, it’s the same feeling. Trust me.”
3) “Crushing Flowers”
“‘Break away from the engine/Break away from the machine.’ Those first two lines reference a need to step away from technology—the untethering of a minute-by-minute need to communicate through virtual realities and self-appreciation. Listen to the birds, overhear conversations, stay awake for tomorrow. Keep your feet on the ground and your head in the clouds … You are the flower. Beware of those who wish to crush you so they can control you. I wanted this song to have an ’80s college-radio feel, so I used a chorus pedal to get that sound. The verse is an R.E.M. minor-to-major feel with half tempos in between. To give it that true feeling, I drove up to Athens, Ga., and asked Peter Buck if he could record it with David Barbe … Really great all around.”
4) “Dead End Road”
“Walking my dogs along the train tracks here in Scottdale, Ga., in the shadow of the U.S. Steel fabrication plant, I get to focus on the past 40 years of travel and stage. Trails look like dead ends … But my dogs keep wanting more, and so I follow and there it is—another path hidden before me. The song’s first line, ‘I went in all or nothing,’ is a commitment millions of musicians around the world struggle with. Do we teeter with a foot in both worlds? Or do we commit to this undertow? Sometimes it’s better to listen and learn from natural surroundings and the bygone energy still within reach from those who’ve passed on. Let them guide you through random acts of kindness and awareness. There’s no such thing as a dead-end road—maybe on a map, but not in my soul. You gotta keep moving, moving along.”
5) “Keep The Change”
“‘Keep The Change’ is a song idea that’s been rattling around for decades. I don’t even think the saying ‘keep the change’ is something we’re going to be using in the future, with debit cards and telephone wallets. I rarely say that anymore. I like the idea of keeping the change of life going … growing up, learning who you are and accepting worlds unfamiliar. But I think change is a young one’s game. As I sit here at 65 years old, even the idea of change gives me anxiety. But I know it’s necessary, and I ride with it … I must … because I’m typing this with my forefinger on a freaking telephone! The music comes from endless hours listening to X, one of my favorite bands. The riff is a nod to Billy Zoom, and the double vocal is a nod to John Doe and Exene Cervenka. I opened a show for them during the Under The Big Black Sun tour, and they really inspired me to be a kind, thoughtful musician. I’ve never had a headliner tell me to go play one more song. Thank you, X!”
6) “C’mon And Dance”
“This is a simple, fun song. No hidden messages—just a way for me to remember cleaning up the basement, putting on some disco bulb lights, hanging with friends on a Saturday night in the basement of our home in Milwaukee growing up and listening to our favorites: Sam Cooke, Buddy Holly, the Archies, Gene Vincent, the Supremes. It was 13-below windchill outside, but down there we were playing pool and making up dances. The intro music is a nod to the Clash, and the main riff is a bit like John Fogerty’s ‘Centerfield.’ I was also thinking of Sylvain Sylvain’s ‘14th Street Beat.’ When I play it at the table, my dog Gertie likes to go in the kitchen and dance with my wife. Then Kugal MacDougal jumps in, and it’s a full-on American Bandstand moment.”
7) “Looks Like We’re Back Again”
“This was going to be the first song and the album title initially. I wanted to make a Drivin N Cryin record for our fans of the last 40 years, and I wanted Sadler Vaden to produce. The band that me, Tim, (drummer) Dave (V. Johnson) and Sadler all worship is the Who. Sadler first saw us when we opened for them on the Quadrophenia tour. I wanted a fun rock song with just a hint of an inspiration to survive these days … ‘Looks like you need some truth/Looks like you need some fun.’ This is just a simple rock song that’s a blast to play.”
8) “Death Of Me Yet”
“This song has been rumbling around our archives for decades. I think we’ve tried to record it numerous times … and we finally did it. It’s got a bit of an early Aerosmith influence, with a Yardbirds riff … definitely a true tale of young rock ’n’ roll. Unfortunately, so much of it has come true. I’m running out of old men to sit on the porch with.”
9) “Jesse Electric”
“Jesse Malin is one of my favorite people—an all-around a great person. When I lived in New York, I used to hang out and play Bowery Electric, a club just down the block from the original CBGB. Jesse would sometimes be spinning records upstairs, and downstairs would be live music. I wrote this as a memory to Jesse, thinking about him going through all that he’s been through. I also wanted to reference the changing neighborhoods in New York—the Lower East Side in particular. The music is definitely inspired by T.Rex … something I’d expect to hear walking through the doors at Bowery Electric on any given night.”
10) “Iggy Monkey”
“A bit of fiction … What if Iggy Pop shows up at the Monkees house? They’re two of my biggest influences, if you add a dash of Ramones and Dylan. I’d love to make a cartoon of Iggy destroying the Monkees house, bringing in Marshall stacks and swinging from rafters. Maybe he even steals the Monkeemobile and heads down to the Sunset Strip. This song has psycho-acoustic style with a bit of street bossa nova. We got Todd Snider to do the final verse on his visit to the studio. We were so lucky to have him cameo, especially since it was one of his last recordings. Todd met us in Memphis in 1990 when he was making his first demo with Keith Sykes at the same studio. We remained close friends ever since. He had fun doing this, and I have great memories of him rocking out in the vocal booth. The last time we hung out a couple months before he passed, I gave him a build-your-own model of the Monkeemobile. My last vision of him is him walking back to his room carrying it under his arm like he’d just won an award. Well, he did.”
See Drivin N Cryin live.
