Photo courtesy of the artist
Drivin N Cryin
Kevn Kinney has released nine Drivin N Cryin albums and 10 solo albums in 33 years. It’s a work ethic that echoes the Milwaukee expatriate’s local heroes, The Haskels, whose posthumous LP was released last November, four decades after it was recorded.
Kinney has said that The Haskels practiced more than any band he’s seen and the example seems to have rubbed off. When Kinney moved to Georgia in 1985 to begin a recording project that evolved into the band Drivin N Cryin, he began an odyssey that took him to the brass ring of major label recording contracts and big-budget music videos before jettisoning him back to reality.
To talk with him today, he seems like the same Northwest Side kid who was a fan (and true believer) of rock ’n’ roll. Kinney was also co-founder (with David Luhrssen) of X-Press, the humble music ’zine that later merged with the Crazy Shepherd to become the Shepherd Express.
Drivin N Cryin’s recent album, Live the Love Beautiful Live, was recorded live in Atlanta. It also includes a song recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Ala. According to Kinney, “It was like a hurricane outside, so I said let’s play ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash.’” The Rolling Stones recorded a trio of songs at the studio in 1969.
This week Drivin N Cryin returns to Milwaukee to play Shank Hall, and in April Kinney will be inducted into the Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) Hall Of Fame. The band is on a tour that will take them through the eastern half of the United States before heading to Europe in May.
Sorting Out Kinney’s Career
“When I close my eyes and sing, I don’t feel much different,” he says when asked how the band has evolved. “There were moments in there where we were being teased by record companies, where maybe we’d be able to do this with less effort and more fame or something? We were in competition with others acts for a brief period—that wasn’t my favorite.”
The band released a half dozen albums on major labels Island and Geffen from 1988 to 1995.
“We are back to being who we are,” Kinney says. “We just continue on our journey. The Live the Love Beautiful record was kind of a validation of our existence—know that you are lucky to have what you have.”
Kinney says he still feels like he has something to say, starting with the songs on Scarred But Smarter to the current album’s “Free Ain’t Free” and “What’s Wrong with Being Happy.” He also still loves the fun stuff that comes with being a musician and songwriter, including the travel and the reading. Moving to Georgia, he glommed onto Southern writers like John Kennedy Toole. A former tour manager for Kinney grew up with Flannery O’Connor as his babysitter.
“I’m still writing songs that I sing to myself, always looking forward to the next project and next show,” he says. “Every show is my first, every show is my last. I love my band; I love my crew. And we are playing Shank Hall again.”
Two decades ago, Drivin N Cryin raced from an Alpine Valley gig opening for Lynyrd Skynyrd, to perform at the Milwaukee club at a benefit for a local fanzine.
“We prefer the bars as far as audience participation goes. Audiences of 500 are the perfect number.” He says the band plays the occasional outdoor gig to 10,000 fans in Georgia. “But I’m just not good at being that guy—that lead singer Mick Jagger guy. I’m selfishly there to please myself. I’m just not a very good rock star,” Kinney laughs, downplaying his genuineness and onstage charisma.
Kinney recalls how much he learned quickly when he moved to Georgia more than three decades go. He began working as a laborer rebuilding a sewage plant and learned to overcome his misconceptions about the South. “I learned that Atlanta is not a Southern city. Like Chicago or New York, it is a major metropolitan city—it is multicultural and is where everybody comes who is disillusioned in their little small towns. It is a pretty open-minded city.”
Having lived in the South longer than his formative years in Milwaukee, at this point does Kinney consider himself a Southerner or a displaced Yankee? “It depends on when you are talking to me,” he laughs. “I mention Milwaukee and the Midwest when I meet people. I’m an Irish Catholic from Milwaukee, making his living travelling around the Bible Belt singing “Straight to Hell”—the irony does not avoid me,” he says, referencing his song that was recorded in 2017 by former Hootie & the Blowfish singer Darius Rucker.
With a career split between heavy rocking material and quieter acoustic material, how does Kinney delegate songs?
“Drivin N Cryin gets the pick of the litter when it’s a good riff—if it’s influenced by Cheap Trick,” he explains. “If it is influenced by Bob Dylan or John Denver, it is a solo song. It is a bit of a schizophrenic existence for me. There are certain things I won’t play acoustic, but with Drivin N Cryin I’ll play everything.”
Zoy Begos, WAMI president said, “The Wisconsin Area Music Industry is thrilled to be inducting Kevn Kinney into the WAMI Hall of Fame, as part of the 40th Awards show on April 19, 2020. Kevn’s descriptive songwriting and oh-so-unique voice has captured the ears of Wisconsin (and beyond!) for a long time, and this honor is very well deserved.”
Drivin N Cryin with opening act Lindsay Beaver will perform at Shank Hall on Thursday, Feb. 13, at 8 p.m.
