Day 19: Dryve - Thrifty Mr. Kickstar

Dryve sounds like my freshman year of college. It was the first year that I was out of New England (I went to school in Philadelphia) and I had two roommates who were not around very much. I the cold, dark post dinner hours I studied a lot and listened to music. I heard Dryve's fantastic "Nervous" and "Rain" on a sampler CD (remember those?) and listened to the two songs on repeat as I hit the books and read old novels. When the record came out a few months later I bought it the first day and went out with a friend to dinner (he was celebrating the completion of a major project) and we sat outside in a deserted parking lot on a balmy spring night and listened to this album from front to back.

Sometimes, because a band sounds like other bands that are currently popular you can tend to think that they tried to sound like this. But in reality Dryve sounded like the Counting Crows and the Wallflowers (which were massively popular at the time) for years before those two bands conquered the airwaves. Warm Hammond B3 organ (one of my favorite sounds) make this record sound much warmer than the abrasive guitars it sometimes traffics in. Dryve only lasted two records, but man-oh-man did they deliver.

They played a kind of folk-rock that would not be out of place next to the Byrds and Crosby Stills and Nash in the 60's. "Whirly Wheel" starts things off with an appropriate swirl of organ and a sense that the modern world is a dizzying place. "Nervous" was the great first single and it's a great introduction to the band. (See the video here) "She Ain't Ready" and "It's My Fault" are confessional gems that appropriatly lay the blame for a relational failure on the narrator, but then after forgiveness is asked for he says "now it's your call".

But it is "Rain" that promotes this album to "lost classic" status. At more than seven minutes, this worship song has an epic build and guitar solo that mesmerizes.

The world is full of artists who created stunning works of genius that were never recognized. For some reason attention just passed them by. You can see their works years later and say "how were these guys never huge. This song should be playing in a grocery store right now, or over the final scene of a teen soap opera at least.

Count Dryve's Thrifty Mr. Kickstar among those missed gems.

5 Stars