Drivin’ n Cryin’ Rock the Radio Room Greenville

Drivin’ N Cryin’ carries the flame Kevn Kinney lit way back in the 80s and continues to bring the good grunge-tinged Southern Rock word, and music to the hootin’ and hollerin’ masses.

With plenty of “YeeHaw”s, “WhooHoo”s (in solidarity with every mention of pot), and plenty of toe-tappin’ and boot stomping from middle to geriatric-aged bottled blondes (both male AND female), Lauren Morrow and her band country-rocked their fans into a frenzy before Drivin’ N Cryin’ took the stage at The Radio Room to properly southern fry their fans with their signature grungy southern riffs and vocals. 

The only holler from the crowd that rivaled the aforementioned pot reference from Morrow was when she referenced Lynyrd Skynyrd. Whooo! That will wake ya up in the evening! Now, before you start hate-mailing me please understand that I do really like well done Southern Rock. Lauren Morrow and her band definitely play very well done (written and performed) Southern Rock. I say this as a music fan who obsesses over Radiohead, is still moved by U2, and worships at the altar of Pearl Jam (insert your own geriatric joke here)  but really learned to appreciate Southern Rock because of the headliner Morrow was there to support. 

Much like the “YeeHaw”s and “WhooHoo”s  inspired by Morrow are heartfelt, D n’ C’s power to move a crowd is just as real. I come at D n’ C as a fan of their “sellout” album, 1993’s SMOKE. Throw in “Fly Me Courageous” and that’s about as far into D n’ C I got, at the time. That in no way detracts from my legitimacy as a D n’ C fan.  Loving SMOKE was how many of my generation fell for D n’ C, which led to discovering the brilliant Mystery Road. I was a senior in high school and depression deep in Pearl Jam and grunge when I first came across D n’ C via SMOKE. It was angry and grungy enough to hold my very young “adult” ears and serve as a gateway drug into an appreciation of a variety of other Southern Rock artists that I had up to that point shunned. 

Suddenly, The Black Crowes and The Allman Brothers Band entered my playlists. Alas, Lynyrd Skynyrd was a bridge too far and still is. Nevertheless, the door D n’ C opened allowed bands like Old Crow Medicine Show and Blackberry Smoke to also join my playlists when they arrived on my radar. 

So, finally seeing D n’ C live 30 years after first discovering them was a special treat. When Kevn Kinney and the band opened with a string of songs that were more Dinosaur Jr. than Skynyrd (no “Patron Lady Beautiful” in sight) I was taken straight back to those nascent early college days of loud guitar and spilt beer (more on spilt beer later). Ripping through classics like “You Don’t Know Me” after starting with “Fly Me Courageous” D n’ C played on for a little over two hours with an extended set near the end where Kinney played acoustic guitar and the band covered many of his solo songs like “Broken Hearts and Auto Parts.” This acoustic set culminated with “Straight to Hell” and then veered back into loud electric songs which concluded with a beautiful bonus rendition of “A Good Country Mile.” 

By the end of the show, the middle-aged and geriatric bottled blondes somehow got replaced by younger bottled blondes as the next generation of D n’ C  fans made themselves apparent. During the later half of  D n’ C’s set they, much like the young concert-going bottled blondes from my college concert-going days, swilled around, spilt their drinks, splashing them all over the shoes of those around them, and danced even when the band was silently transitioning between songs. It was sort of reassuring to see that the old cliche about things changing and staying the same is still, uh…the same, with one exception-these youngsters took about 6345 selfies…WHILE spilling their drinks. 

“YeeHaw”s, “WhooHoos,” that familiar sweet burning smell in the air mom warned me about when I went off to college (which I was already familiar with), and grungy guitar balanced with southern acoustic-stringed drawl made for a night of more than just a finally actualized promise to get around to seeing one of the most overlooked but influential bands of the past 30 years. It was a night and a show laden with the weight of time and its march bringing the good tunes down through the generations and stirring the crowd, courageously, one generational blonde to the next.