You Kind of Have Heard This One Before

Album: Kevn Kinney, Down Outlaw, 1994

Best Track: "Shindig With the Lord"

Lasting Memory: I taped this album from the radio during the spring or summer of 1994. The rock radio station for the conjoined towns of Christiansburg and Blacksburg, Va., dedicated every Sunday night to playing complete new releases. I can't recall the station's name, call letters or frequency signature, but I do remember that I loved that station because it was truly open-format.

Unlike the current slew of "We Play Anything" radio stations that recreate yesteryears' Top 10 Billboard charts, that one station I can't now name really would play any song from any artist. It's playlist ranged from orchestral folkies such as Joan Baez to death metal auteur such as Sepultura.

When the station was sold by its private owners to a nationwide radio operations firm, it changed formats dramatically, to mostly '70s soft rock. One of the final songs that station ever aired under its old open format was Bob Dylan's "Lilly, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts."

I'm mentioning this because I want to make the point that if, as I wrote in my preceding post that it is a theory that every rock band since 1964 has wanted to be The Kinks, it has been a truism -- an undoubted or self-evident truth; one too obvious for mention (H/T: Webster's) -- of music criticism since 1962 that every folk singer has wanted to be Bob Dylan. I could argue that, as with most truism, the Dylan-wannabe shorthand critique is arguable in most cases.

For Kevn Kinney, it is true.

And to Kinney's credit, he does a fair job of channelling Dylan's early 1960s sound, worldview and lyrics. Especially on Down Outlaw's title, and opening, track, Kinney does a whole lot more than betray his principal influence, but he sounds pretty good doing it. If you like that sort of thing.

As on much of what Dylan has recorded over the years, Kinney's voice can be taste that's hard to acquire. Also like Dylan's songs, however, the general sound of the instrumentals and the lyrical content make putting up with Kinney's raw, unsweet vocals worth the effort. Give "Shindig With the Lord" a listen and dare to come back to tell me that the song isn't downright enjoyable.

Range, either in theme or style, isn't Kinney's strong suit, as Down Outlaw's third standout track, "Midwestern Blues," clearly demonstrates.

Fortunately, a lot of times, a listener just wants an album that sets and perpetuates a sound, mood and/or ambiance. Down Outlaw is one of those types of albums for anyone who's looking for a soundtrack to kind of morosely reminiscing on a drizzly day after they've received some bad news that doesn't actually affect him or her in any direct way.

Which makes Down Outlaw a perfect album for me to have listened to several times over the past two days, since I learned on Tuesday that my high school religion teacher, football coach and school's athletic director John O'Hara had passed away after a decade-long struggle with cancer. Coach O was a good guy. I never kept up with him, never even went back to my old school for any sporting events after I graduated. Still, I'll miss that guy.

Up Next: Kiss, Lick It Up, 1983 (from the nearly sublime to the ridiculously awful)