Customer Reviews

Mystery Road

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you grew up in the south (particularly Georgia) in the late 80's early 90's you can understand why this album is held so dear to so many. It smells like a spring day, tastes like a cold beer, and sums up being young and pleasantly naive.

This record remains the favorite of most dnc fans, since it comes from their most creative and unique period. Continuing the previous record's ("The Whisper Tames the Lion") balancing act between hard rock and folk, "Mystery Road" brings these two aspect's of the band's sound closer together by delving into southern rock--"Toy Never Played With," "Wild Dog Moon," and the anthemic "Honeysuckle Blue"--and by upping the ante on the folk/country side with the top-notch writing (veering from story-song and socio-political rant) of "Ain't it Strange," "With the People," "Peacemaker," and the band's signature song "Straight to Hell," a trash-country sing-along if ever there was one. And I haven't even mentioned "Wild Dog Moon," a "Rocket Queen"-style anthem. In 1989, reviewers were apt to mislabel the band as "southern rock," but it's more than that. If your tastes include Neil Young, Son Volt, or like bands, then you might like "Mystery Road."

Mystery Road is a beautiful combination of rock, folk, and a touch of bluegrass without a twangy southern voice. This collection of songs is truly an album (a distant concept these days), and one song flows nicely into the next. The album has a nice blend of rock (Honeysuckle Blue, Wild Dog Moon) and some more folksy songs (Peacemaker and Straight to Hell).

To those of you who are unfamiliar with Drivin N Cryin (or who have only heard one or two songs), I highly urge you to check out Mystery Road. If you like R.E.M. or the Indigo Girls, you'd probably like DNC. This band is a quality group of guys who care about making good music.

This was the current release when dnc played the yearly Winterfest concert at my high school in Chattanooga, TN. That was probably the loudest show hosted at the school up to that point, and one of the biggest names to play one of the Winterfest shows.

I was a sophmore at the time, and found their music to be different than most of what was popular at that point. While it's possible to mindlessly sing along, most of the words of all the dnc songs have some sort of meaning, like the helplessness of an elderly man losing his home in "House For Sale," and pride in Southern scenery found in "Honeysuckle Blue." And who hasn't been drunk and belted along to "Straight To Hell?"

While this album was the current one at the time of the show, the band treated us to some cuts from the soon-to-be-released "Fly Me Courageous."

This album is a good one to look at the band when their reputation was building, and their sound was evolving toward the hard-rock sound that brought them onto MTV.

Drivin' n' Cryin's 3rd album, is solid. "Mystery Road", didn't chart and that's a shame, to many people buying Tone Loc and M.C. Hammer at the time. Kevin Kinney wrote a great album here. It start's out with the Appalachian fiddle played by Mikel Kinney for the fiddle popper "Ain't It Strange", "Toy Never Played With", brings out the riff-rockin' DNC. Great tune and video of "Honeysuckle Blue", loved this song since it's release, I got married when this was popular. The great chord changing folk-rockin' "Wild Dog Moon", followed by the jangly folk "House For Sale", the down home "Peacemaker", a favorite of mine, love the mandolin. The rocker "You Don't Know Me", "Malfunction Junction", a superb riff-rocker, agreat chugger of a tune. And they close with the classic country rock of "Straight To Hell", you can't beat this song for nothing. Michelle Malone sang on this record, she's been recording for 20 plus years, and had a good album last year with "Debris". In 2009 DNC released a great rockin' comeback album "Great American Bubble Factory".

When I ordered this CD...I was very much looking forward to it's arrival and I expected that it would be in good condition.
What I got was a very poor reproduction that skips throughout the entire cd.
We have several cd players in the house and it's sad quality is quite evident.
I won't be ordering from this merchant again.

I have to say first off that I own all of the DNC CDs. Kevin Kinney and the band deliver another great album with MYSTERY ROAD with their style of rock and twang.

I first heard the group on a radion station while living in the South and loved the way they sang. When I moved back to the West Coast I decided to buy the CD and love the whole thing.

Drivin n Cryin and Led Zeppelin are my two favorite bands ever. Mystery Road & Whisper Tames The Lion are DNC at their best.

This and Whisper include some of the best southern/bluegrass/folk/laid back music on the planet.

All the songs are great! My absolute favorites are:

AIN'T IT STRANGE
TOYS NEVER PLAYED WITH
WILD DOG MOON
PEACEMAKER
MALFUNCTION JUNCTION

"Honeysuckle Blue" it struck a chord in my soul when i heard it. Now when ever i hear it i think of summer in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I absolutely love that song and DNC.