Credit Kevn Kinney's wonderfully downcast 1990 solo album, MacDougal Blues, for a sizable portion of the growth he and his band display on Fly Me Courageous, their fourth and most consistently provocative work. Prior to Kinney's outing, Drivin' n' Cryin' played taut bar-band music with arty pretensions hanging from every syllable. The band clearly understood rock & roll throb but demanded enigmatic R.E.M.-style significance from its songs as well. The result: three interesting but erratic albums.

With somber, acoustic-guitar-based settings, MacDougal Blues allowed Kinney to explore the ruminative side of his muse. For the first time, the Deep Thoughts he had inappropriately tried to shoehorn into his band's uptempo stomps received properly understated treatment. Following this artistic breakthrough, Kinney reapproached rock newly cleansed and fully focused. He's no longer trying to sum up a sea of ranging thoughts in a single song; instead, he's acquired the patience to use one fleeting image ("You took me around the block again") as the means to discuss all manner of manipulation – including "punk rockers sellin' their faces for the TV." Smarter and more experienced, Kinney is unwilling to sacrifice his intellect in order merely to deliver kick-ass (read: brainless) rock & roll. Observations on greed, escapism, urban stress and politics are woven through the album's eleven selections.

If Drivin' n' Cryin' once vacillated about its sound – earlier albums played out a tugging match between Southern roots and Northeastern angst – this time it goes for the jugular, underlining every catch phrase with bold, decisive strokes that draw on roots and angst and funk and blues. The guitar melodies hit with undeniable weight, the rhythm guitars carve up the songs with Ginsu-knife precision, and Kinney's nasal voice even reveals a soulful core. In addition, "Chain Reaction," "Lost in the Shuffle" and other tracks employ the kind of abrupt tempo changes and virtuoso rhythm-section figures that once made the Allman Brothers such an engrossing live act. Never self-conscious or indulgent, these turnarounds serve the songs, helping transform three shopworn chords into something magical and redemptive. (RS 603)

TOM MOON