Beloved Atlanta rockers return with a confident, back-to-basics album that restores the band’s core sound.
Forty years on from the release of their debut album, Drivin N Cryin are back with their tenth studio release. Formed in Atlanta in 1985, and coming from the same golden era of college radio rock that birthed fellow Georgia bands R.E.M., Indigo Girls, and the Black Crowes, the band’s reputation has been built over the years on an uncompromising spirit, coupled with songs full of Southern rock grit, folk storytelling and high-energy rock n roll. Led by singer-songwriter Kevn Kinney and anchored by the rhythm section of bassist Tim Nielsen and drummer Dave Johnson, this new album, Crushing Flowers, is the first release of new material from the band since Live The Love Beautiful, first saw the light of day back in 2019, and sees Sadler Vaden, an occasional touring guitarist for the trio, occupying the producer’s chair.
The album opens with Mirror, Mirror, an instant americana rock classic, and very much worth the admission fee on its own. Written, as are all the songs on the album, by Kinney, this deeply personal song addresses memory and identity loss with the compassion and restraint that can only come from someone witnessing at firsthand the demise of a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease. And yet, despite the emotive nature of the narrative, the tone and delivery offer both a sense of understanding and defiance with a chorus of anthemic proportions and the repeated line “I know you’re in there somewhere”. Add to this a guest appearance from Peter Buck and an arpeggiated guitar riff that sounds as if it came straight from Heartbreaker’s Mike Campbell, and you have a song that could comfortably sit alongside some of Tom Petty’s finest work, or possibly more accurately, The Byrds.
Elsewhere, Why Don’t You Go Around, finds the band mining a similar rock swagger to the aforementioned Black Crowes, while the presence of Peter Buck on guitar for the title track can’t help but draw comparisons to R.E.M., particularly from the time of their excellent album, Green. By their own admission, Drivin N Cryin are a band that constantly sounds like they’ve just rifled through your album collection, drawing influence from a wide array of musical elements, chameleons rather than having their own distinctive sound. That point continues to be hammered home on songs such as the folk-tinged Dead End Road, with its conspicuous nod towards John Prine, while Looks Like We’re Back Again does little to hide the rather transparent comparison to The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again.
The album closes with Iggy Monkey, which may well feature the last studio appearance from the late Todd Snider, who takes lead vocals on the final verse, delivering a poignant touch and a fitting coda to an enjoyable collection of songs. Yes, it’s hard to ignore the fact that the musical influences from track to track tend to be a little too perceptible at times; however, they are at least varied, and as a band, they’ve never looked to reinvent the wheel. Instead, what they do, and do better than many, is write instantly memorable songs, full of passion, that rock hard, and Crushing Flowers, with its more stripped back production, favouring clarity and chemistry over excess, stands among the best from their illustrious career so far.
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