Ten Albums: Number 7- Kerosene Hat by Cracker

Tom Petty’s ‘Free Falling’ was the first song I learned to play on guitar. It’s a simple two chords song, with a pinkie note added to one of the chords. That’s pretty much it.

“Teen Angst” by Cracker was the second song I learned to play on guitar. It is all of three chords, with a slight change in chord order from verse to chorus. The Iron Potatoes, my first band, played that song nearly a million times when I was in high school.

I stole my brother’s copy of Cracker’s first album, aptly named “Cracker” and played it so much that I had to buy him a replacement copy because I scratched it so badly it would get stuck. Songs from that album made in on dozens of mix tapes I made for myself and my friends, creatively labeled “Recorded at Mikesmo Studios.”

I loved that album. And everyone around me knew that I loved it because I made them listen to it so much. In my car, on the bus going to cross country meets (not as much as Rush – Roll The bones) and, well everywhere. So, when my friend Brian V, who worked at a record store, told me he could get me a promo copy of Cracker’s new album Kerosene Hat in the summer of 1993, I was stoked. I delivered him a blank cassette tape (I was partial to Maxell XLII-90s) and a few days later, I had the album, a full month before it was officially released until August 24^th. By then I knew every word of every song.

The album starts out with Cracker’s most well-known song “Low,” the Johnny Hickman sticky intro guitar riff repeated throughout the song, and David Lowry’s smokey voice. It’s just four chords, over and over, but the video, featuring Sandra Bernhard boxing Lowry, got heavy airplay on MTV. Cracker was become big time.

Track two, ‘Movie Star,’ another blazing riff by Hickman, Lowry’s witty lyrics, a blazing solo. Movie Star became a staple of my college cover band, Phat. To this day, when I hear the last chord of Low fade out, I hear the into to movie star in my head.

Track three, ‘Get off This’ just one of many Lowry kiss-off songs. Another catchy riff, another song of just a few chords over and over.

Boom, Boom, Boom, three hits right in a row. Guitar riffs everywhere. But Cracker likes to mix things up, slip in some slow songs, some ballads.  Track four, Kerosene Hat, the title track. A sweet sad acoustic song. Years ago, David Lowry started a blog called 300 songs where he tells of origins of his songs, including Kerosene Hat.

Lots of words so far and I’m on track four. But there’s more.

“Nostalgia,” a song about Stonewall Jackson’s arm. It’s buried on some farm. “Sweet Potato,” the Johnny Hickman penned “Lonesome Johnny Blues.”  And finally, a cover of the Grateful Dead’s ‘Loser’, which was the Grateful Dead song I’d ever heard that I liked. And that was it. Twelve great songs, just like on my bootleg cassette tape.

I knew it was mine cause it had my initials

But, wait, there was more. “Hi Desert Biker Meth Lab,” a forty-one second mix of bits from the recording of the album. And that was, wait…the CD is still playing.

Kerosene Hat was the first CD I’d bought that had hidden tracks. Tracks 16-18 were each three seconds of silence. Then, track 69 (because, why not) was “Euro-Trash Girl” the epic eight minute song from the hard to find “Tucson” EP. Tracks 70-87, again 3 seconds of silence each, then track 88, “I Ride My Bike” tracks 89-98m, more silence the track 99, an outtake of Kerosene Hat.  Cracker had snuck their previous EP on this disc. Sneaky.

You could never leave this CD in your multidisc player on random, because you were very likely to hear lots of three second silent tracks.

After a month of listening to my bootleg tape, then a few weeks of the CD before headed to start my Freshman year at DePaul, I was all Crackered up. I listened to that album every day. My roommates must have hated it. Cracker played two shows at the Metro in October of 1993 and I bought 6 tickets to both shows, bringing a new crew of people with me each night. One night, the band almost got into a fight with Metro security when a bouncer accidentally tackled Johnny Hickman on stage while trying to keep stage divers off the stage. Cracker played "Don't Fuck Me Up (With Peace and Love)" then took a quick break to regroup before continuing the show. There was also this opening band that really stuck in my head (more on that later in the top 10).

I’ve seen Cracker dozens of times. For a while, I think they recognized me when I was standing at the rail for every show in Chicago. I’ve got everything they have ever released. It’s been a long time since I have seen them live and when the world stops sucking in 2021, I’ll go see them again.

Oh, and I could totally be in a Cracker cover band. I know every note of the first two albums and lots of others beyond that. Maybe, someday, when they are touring, Dave and Johnny will call me up on stage to play Kerosene Hat with them and I will nail it so well, they will add me to the band. You know, if they need a third guitar player.

Thanks for reading.