As a follow-up to 'Fly Me Courageous' (1990), Smoke makes sense – you know, as a sellout. Yet there's still something disheartening in all of the energy with which Drivinn-Cryin infuses such cliché-driven rock & roll. For the first time, the raspy-voiced, sweet and sincere Kevn Kinney sings about all of these women "who have cool moves," "who have whiskey souls," et cetera, et cetera, until Smoke reminds you of every bad (if not blatantly sexist) metal and hard-rock band.

Fans of early country-swing-thrash tunes such as "Keys to Me" and "Honeysuckle Blue" probably wouldn't have minded several more on Smoke instead of this regression to Skynyrd-land. But DNC's longtime fans should have known, I guess, that the band's disco-phobia and preoccupation with cool traditional music eventually would lead to a dead end of bad classic-rock-style metal records. (RS 657)

JILL BLARDINELLI