A Little Bit of Drivin' & a Little Bit of Cryin'

We made the usual 2-hour trek to Chattanooga to check in with the inlaws (and the outlaws) yesterday after work, but we also had another reason to do a little drivin'....and that was to see Drivin' & Cryin' perform at Chattanooga Rhythm and Brews. CB&R is a small music venue/bar located downtown. We have been here before to see one of our regional favs, Scott Miller and the Commonwealth, and weren't crazy about the place. First, it's a smoking venue. That's nice to keep the teeny-boppers out since you have to be 21 or older, but it's hell on your lungs and eyes (hence, the little bit of cryin'). Second, the acoustics and sound techs at CB&R are just not that great. Perhaps we are little biased since we've seen so many great-sounding shows at The Ryman and at Bonnaroo where they take sound engineering VERY seriously. But this was a rare opportunity to see a (somewhat) legendary band who get rave reviews for their live show. As lead singer, Kevin Kinney, proclaimed when they took the stage - they haven't put out a record in 12 years (a new one is coming out in the fall) - but you sure couldn't tell that from the crowd as it was packed to the gills with folks who roared to life when they opened with their awesome hard-rocking ode to the South, "Honeysuckle Blue." The went non-stop for the next hour and a half and closed with their great sing-a-long anthem, "Straight to Hell." The ol' watch said 2 AM (EST) by the time we got out of there, but it was well worth all the drivin' and all the cryin', Opening the show was another Atlanta native, Connor Christian, and his band The Southern Gothic. They were a tremendous surprise and we would love to see them again in a place with better acoustics and sound engineering. They had several catchy original numbers but their best performance was a cover of Guns & Roses' "November Rain" with a fiddle instead of a lead guitar...very, very cool.