Drivin' n' Cryin'

Singer-guitarist Kevn Kinney and bassist Tim Nielsen first made a splash as kudzu-rock/college radio darlings Drivin' n' Cryin' in the late '80s. The band went through a bona fide longhaired hard-rock era in the '90s with guitar-heavy, Southern-fried hits like "Fly Me Courageous," “Straight to Hell” and “Build a Fire.” As the main songwriter, Kinney has maintained his musical flexibility over the years and has welcomed a small rotation of guitarists, drummers and sidemen into the lineup, too.

Last year, Kinney, Nielsen and longtime drummer Dave Johnson welcomed guitarist Sadler Vaden (formerly of Charleston, SC power trio Leslie), into the band.

"I got a call from Tim one day, asking me for a ride to Asheville," Vaden remembers. "He told me to bring my guitar and amp so I could sit in… Afterward, Kevn said, 'Hey, man, what are you doing the rest of the week? We're heading up to New York.' So, I ended up jumping in the van and going."

Vaden barely had a chance to learn the songs before hitting the road, so he mastered them onstage, during soundchecks and live sets. "That's how it worked," he laughs. "Luckily, I was a fan of the band, and I already knew a lot of their songs."

These days, the band seems to be operating with a new blast of steam. In June, it released an EP titled Songs from the Laundromat, the first installment in a planned four-part series. The second disc, a punk-fueled six-song set titled Songs About Cars, Space and The Ramones, is due Sept. 18, and the band has already started tracking a pile of garage-rock songs for the next one.

"It'll be a trip into psychedelia, which is something Kevn has always wanted to do," Vaden says. "This EP series allows him and the group to explore new ideas and make it like a magazine subscription for bands. It's a cool thing to do between full-length albums."