Drivin' And Cryin'

One of the greatest things about this year's Jam is the number of opportunities I've had to reacquaint myself with many bands. Bands I knew I had loved, but maybe over the course of the years had begun to lose touch with the reasons why.

Of course, I remembered Drivin' and Cryin' from the late 80's/early 90's. Of course, I remembered Straight to Hell and Fly Me Courageous. Those songs were anthems of my generation. But those weren't the things that impressed me most tonight.

Instead, I marveled at the subtle interplay of "The Indian Song," laughed at the funny-yet-oh-so-true lyric about being "Pre-approved and Pre-denied" (yes, a lyric every working class stiff like me can relate to), and enjoyed the many surpises the band snuck in, such as a take-off on Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and a version of "Fly Me Courageous" that somehow morphed into Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water." But perhaps the most fun number of all was when Kevin Kinney used a story about an encounter with a young Pentecostal boy in Huntsville back in 1980 as an excuse to launch into "Which Jesus Do You Know?"

Whether the story was actually true, embellished or totally fiction is, of course, anyone's guess.
But the image of Jesus at a Willie Nelson concert is...well, once put in your head, a hard thing to shake. Of course, we were also informed that the Jesus Kevin Kinney knows also attends Allman Brothers concerts and is a huge AC/DC fan as well. Now, mixing Jesus and rock'n'roll can be a tricky matter, and some will accuse you of blasphemy, but the truth of the song is a gentle poking fun at the whole notion of "knowing Jesus" and those who will claim that "their" way is the one and only "true" way.

I didn't know why, but I had tears welling in my eyes before the song was done, and dang it, it's supposed to be a FUNNY song, so what was the deal? I think it just hit me especially hard as I realized there was so much truth in that song, that everyone's spirituality is such a deep and personal thing, and yes, I do like to think that the God I believe in would love The Allman Brothers and AC/DC. And yes, maybe even Willie.

Raven Woods