DRIVIN’ N CRYIN’ – THE GREAT AMERICAN BUBBLE FACTORY

My first exposure to Drivin’ N Cryin’ came via their national radio hit single and album of the same title, “Fly Me Courageous”. My friends and I probably listened to that album three times a day for an entire year. Matter of fact, when they came through town with Livin’ Color opening for them on the Fly Me Courageous tour, my little brother popped his parent-free concert cherry. However, by the time their 1993 followup “Smoke” came out four years later, there had been far too much time/life between the “Fly Me Courageous” high-schooler I had been and the then-twentysomething I had become, and Drivin’ N Cryin’ completely fell off my radar. That pretty much summed up my knowledge of D-n-C for the next 10+ years, up until I found alt-country and Kevn Kinney and realized he and D-n-C were tied at the hip. While I enjoyed Kevn’s solo material well enough, it never captured me the way that D-n-C album did and I just chalked that up to a period in time having passed.  But then I received D-n-C’s 2009 effort, The Great American Bubble Factory, in the mail.

The Great American Bubble Factory is an unapologetic rock and roll record. No genre bending or boundary pushing, just straight blue collar rock and roll from Hot-lanta. There is a great quote from the press sheet that came with the cd that, I believe, does a fantastic job of framing this album both in sound and attitude that I feel inclined to share:

“I come from an industrial land of things that used to be: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Class of 79…a town, back then, that encouraged you to leave high school, get a job in a factory, get injured and then get workman’s compensation while picking up a side job at a liquor store or record store where you get paid under the table”

To further press the point, Kevn found the inspiration for the title track while buying bubbles for the neighborhood kids when he noticed that the label said they were “Made In Taiwan”. This led to Kevn wondering how America had reached the point where even our soapy water with a plastic wand was an import.

All of that said, this album isn’t a 12 track lament of the blue collar worker. No, quite the opposite, it’s an ode to the blue collar worker’s audacity to hope.

Drivin’ N Cryin’ – I See Georgia
Drivin’ N Cryin’ – Detroit City
Drivin’ N Cryin’ – Preapproved, Predenied

Drivin’ N Cryin’s Official Web Site, Drivin’ N Cryin’ on myspace, Buy The Great American Bubble Factory