Southern – Rad/ATL

Drivin’ N Cryin’ and Lynx Deluxe’s roots are deeply intertwined, reaching back nearly to the beginning of both groups.

Naturally, Lynx Deluxe’s rendition of “(Whatever Happened to) The Great American Bubble Factory?”—the latest single to arrive from the 100-song Let’s Go Dancing: Said the Firefly to the Hurricane, A Compilation Celebrating the Songs of Kevn Kinney—is filled with nods to both groups’ shared past. Their cover of the songs also casts new light on the glorious nuances of Kinney’s songwriting, illuminating just how emotionally powerful an instrument he possesses.

In the summer of 1981, Drivin’ N Cryin’s bass player Tim Nielsen and drummer Paul Lenz started playing music together as the rhythm section for Atlanta pub rock/punk outfit the Nightporters. The group, which also included singer and guitar player Andy Browne, carved a path through Georgia’s burgeoning underground punk and new wave scenes, sharing stages with legendary acts such as the Clash, REM, and the Replacements.

The Nightporters infused unabashed angst and joy in equal measures into their three-minute, three-chord songs with titles such as “Mona Lisa,” “Dreamin,’” and “West of Eden,” detailing their teenage worldview—yes, some of them were still in high school at the time. Browne was only 15 years old when the group started.

Fast-forward some 42 years later: Browne fronts the baroque alternative rock songwriting machine that is Lynx Deluxe. Backed by a lineup featuring bass player Lucy Theodora, drummer Brad Mattson, keyboard player Billy Fields, and guitar player Jeff Dean, the group’s take on “The Great American Bubble Factory” is a stylish and bucolic affair. Their cover pays homage to Kinney’s original number while reflecting on how industry outsourcing has affected the American economy and changed the landscape and middle class American culture as a whole.

“The Great American Bubble Factory” embraces a sense of nostalgia for a happier time and place in America, when daily life seemed simpler and more prosperous.

Kinney makes a cameo appearance in the song, playing harmonica, and Nielsen plays mandolin, making it the only song on the comp. to feature Drivin’ N Cryin’s two longest standing players.

Lynx Deluxe renders “The Great American Bubble Factory” even more precarious than the original, pushing the narrative forward by expanding upon Kinney’s lyrics in deeply personal ways.

In the second verse, Browne sings, “Did some time for a crime went a little loco / Slaved for two bits a day praying for a furlough.”

As Browne explains, it’s all a true story.

“I was in jail for 80 days, because I went a little loco,” Browne says. “The prescription oxycontin I was on for eight years due to a severe back injury left my dopamine and serotonin levels not so balanced for about a year and half. I was not exactly in the right state of mind, and was going through a very difficult time. While I was in there I was trying to get in the kitchen to work and make like .50¢ to $1 a day,” he adds. “But they wouldn’t let me do it.”

Later, Browne blends yet another homage into the song, this time giving a nod to “Union Sundown” from Bob Dylan’s 1981 LP Infidels. “Her dress reads Mozambique / This flashlights from Taiwan / These boots are from the Far East / Boxed and shipped from Amazon / The car parts come from China / Fenders made in Mexico,” he sings before calling back to the original number’s refrain, “If you can make it here, why you build it there?”

This new vision of “The Great American Bubble Factory” unfolds with an even greater sense of unwavering determination.

“We’re not much of a cover band,” Browne goes on to say. “When we pick a song to cover, we have to rewrite it a bit and make it our own.”

Songs for this living tribute project are amassing over the next 10 months. Previously released singles can be found here.

The first physical installment is available on vinyl now. Check it all out via TastyGoodyRecords.com.

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“Think About It.” It’s a simple, evocative phrase with the potential to mean just about anything that anyone can project onto the words. Is it meant as a cautionary tale? A prompt to let wisdom from experience sink in? Or is it simply the act of being left alone with one’s thoughts, looking back on a life in songs.

The title for Kevn Kinney’s 10th solo album is only the doorway into a collection of songs that move at a dreamlike pace. Sink a needle into the album’s pearly white-vinyl grooves and the atmosphere grows thick with internal dialogue, self-effacing humor, and lonesome ruminations. For this latest offering, Kinney embraced the solitude of life under quarantine conditions to summon a deeply personal album. Melancholy wit and memories collide in layers of rich string and piano arrangements that coalesce in songs with titles such as “Catching Up To Myself,” “Stop, Look, Listen, Think,” and “Half Mast.”

The A side favors primarily acoustic performances with jazz and folk leanings. Laur Joamets’ longing pedal steel in “Catching Up To Myself” and “Wishes” are matched with David Barbe’s production, which wholly ties together the album’s glowing and introspective tone.

In the opening title track, Kinney slows down the pace to in a devilish aside: “Ask yourself, should I? Could I?” His questions paint an image that hangs in the air long after the album has stopped spinning. It could be an internal narrative coming from the perspective of a beloved family dog who’s eyeballing a piece of food on the kitchen counter. Or it could be an existential quandary between two folks sitting next to each other at a bar, about to make a bad decision. Whatever the case may be, all are mile markers on the road to determining one’s place in the world, and the answers never come easily.

Throughout the album, a coterie of Georgia music royalty, including Peter Buck and Bill Berry (R.E.M.), Laur Joamets (Sturgill Simpson, Drivin’ N’ Cryin’), Brad Morgan (Drive-By Truckers), bass player extraordinaire Kevin Scott, and more play with subtlety and nuance. Their presence on the record demonstrates Kinney’s impeccable taste in selecting sidemen. Peter Buck plays his original R.E.M. 12-string Rickenbacker throughout the album’s B side, picking up a jangle-rock pace. But it’s Kinney’s poetic, lyrical portraits of the situations and the people he’s encountered along the way that bring the music to life. Kinney has long lived something of a troubadour lifestyle, both as a solo artist and performer and while singing and playing guitar with Drivin’ N Cryin.’ His experiences crown the 11 songs that make up Think About It. Each number emerges from a seemingly bottomless wellspring of memories of navigating long drives on the road and the kind of barroom conversations that take place between the soundcheck and showtime.

There is a veiled autobiographical tone swaying between the somber frustrations of “Wishes,” “Half Mast” and the album’s closer, a Southern take on an Irish a cappella ballad called “Never The Twain Shall Meet.” The closing number absolutely pulls the air out of the room. But it’s the sly and confident swing of “Shapeshifter Grifter” that is the heart and soul of Think About It. As the song’s spoken word jazz musings unfold it’s clear that this is the catchiest tribute to Sun Ra, Howlin’ Wolf, and Col. Bruce Hampton the world has witnessed yet. “Think of a number between one and a hundred!” All the answers lie within.

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Tag: Southern

Lynx Deluxe pays homage to Drivin’ N Cryin’ and Kevn Kinney’s ‘Great American Bubble Factory’

Kevn Kinney, ‘Think About It’