Mystery Road is the third studio album by hard/Southern rock band Drivin' N' Cryin', released on March 28, 1989, by Island Records.[1]The Washington Post said the album "remains a classic of the genre."[2]
Overview
Originally, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, a friend of the band, was going to produce the album, and they recorded demos together. However, Island Records refused and chose Scott McPherson to produce.[3]
Mystery Road "is like a map of late-'80s college radio, wandering from folky protest songs to crunch-heavy hard rock to warm, pseudo-country rock, with a little punk thrown in for good measure".[4]
"Straight to Hell" is the band's most well-known song.[5] Singer/guitarist Kevn Kinney said of the song:
It's just about a latchkey kid whose mother is dating and they have different rules. It's got a little bit of 'Romeo and Juliet' to it, but it's mostly about my sister's life, but it's also about everybody's life, that's why I think people identify so much with it.[6]
"Honeysuckle Blue" was a "gorgeous Southern rock ballad that sounded like it should have been a big hit".[3] Kinney recalled it was
a true story about a kid I saw outside the studio in New York begging on the streets. There was a time in the '80s when there were a lot of hotels where teenagers were squatting at. I was just wondering if he'd ever seen a mountain, you know?[6]
On October 6, 2017, Mystery Road was reissued with the original Peter Buck demos as bonus tracks.[7]
Darius Rucker's fifth album When Was the Last Time was released October 20, 2017, and featured a cover of "Straight to Hell" with guests Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, and Charles Kelley. Darius said the song "was huge in my day—when it was played in the bar, every single person in the bar was singing and hugging their best friend".[8]
Denise Sullivan of AllMusic called Mystery Road the "least memorable record in the Drivin' n' Cryin' canon".[9]Red Dirt Report's Andrew W. Griffin wrote of the reissue that "this new rerelease of a 28-year old album from Drivin' N' Cryin' is refreshing, primarily because we get to hear a band really starting to take off and become the band that refuses to throw in the towel all these years later".[10]
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