“Looks like we’re back again,” Kevin Kinney sings on Drivin N Cryin’s latest album, “just when you need a friend.” Heck, he may be right. The 40-plus-year-old band have released a no-apologies rock-and-roll record after about a six-year hiatus, and it feels like a palate cleanser. In a world where Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Morgan Wallen, and BTS rule the charts, the sound of dirty electric guitar riffs, pulsating bass lines, and pounding drums and lyrics that are shouted more than sung is sorely needed as a refresher course in rock and roll magic, just as it was during the mid-1980s when Drivin N Cryin first emerged.
Maybe these trends just go in cycles while Drivin N Cryin remain the same. Getting stuck in a groove can be a good thing. The ten songs on Crushing Flowers could have come out of garages during any decade. While the lyrics can be more mature, even reflective, depending on the track, the album as a whole preaches rebellion against a world that continues to prize conformity over individuality and expression. It’s the Walt Whitmanian yawp of protest and inherent desire for fun.
The title song preaches breaking away from the engines and machinery of modern society and its phony values. Getting crushed only makes one stronger. The heavy sound of an electric guitar reinforces the powerful message. In the following song, the singer declares, there is no such thing as a “Dead End Road”. Nothing is real. Everything is real. What doesn’t kill you can make you happy. Let Drivin N Cryin in your head and dance. You have to keep on moving. Take it off and turn it up. It’s advice for the ages.
If all this sounds a little silly, that is the point. Life is serious enough. The only way to fight against death, literally and spiritually, is by fighting back with joy. It’s not a war party as much as partying is an act of war, and a rock band is the best weapon. Drivin N Cryin namecheck a jukebox full of “Sam Cooke, Buddy Holly and the Supremes, Shotgun, Cloud Nine, Satisfaction, and Baby It’s You” to attack the doldrums with, not to mention heavy hitters like James Brown and Led Zeppelin.
Kevin Kinney wrote all the songs here with love and passion for rock’s past. He’s no critic or snob. He celebrates both Iggy Pop and the Monkees on the incongruously titled “Iggy Monkee”, referencing both acts because of the pleasures they provide. “Hey hey we’re the punk rock power pop” he sings over Dave V Johnson’s thrashing and Tim Nielsen’s throbbing bass. The song ends with the late Todd Snider singing the last verse; it’s reportedly his last recording. By the way, the other famous guest star on the album is R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, playing guitar on two cuts, “Crushing Flowers” and “Mirror Mirror”.
While the album’s lyrics offer specific references, the opening cut “Mirror Mirror” concerns the author’s mother, whose memory has faded. He wonders if the same will happen to him. The songs that follow offer his tribute to the music that has brought him such joy. The crushed flowers Drivin N Cryin refer to must be Forget Me Nots.