Cracker

During the peak years of the 1990s, the Virginia-rooted ensemble Cracker fused strands of alternative pop/rock with country to produce a string of sardonic, attention-grabbing singles. Although singer and guitarist David Lowery openly embraced conventional roots traditions, his own path had taken a decidedly unconventional route through the preceding decade, when he led the eccentric alternative group Camper Van Beethoven. Once that band entered an extended break in 1990, Lowery began sketching fresh songs alongside guitarist Johnny Hickman and bassist Davey Faragher. The trio christened the venture Cracker—several of those initial recordings would eventually appear as David Lowery Demo Mixes—and established their base in Richmond, Virginia. In 1991 they secured a deal with Virgin Records and recruited drummers Jim Keltner, Rick Jaeger, and Phil Jones to help realize the debut album.

That self-titled first release arrived in 1992. Its guitar-driven tracks and raspy vocal delivery quickly positioned Cracker within the rock landscape, while the track “Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)” reached the top of the modern rock chart. The following year brought the follow-up Kerosene Hat, which yielded the widely played MTV and radio favorite “Low”; the song registered on British listings and crossed into the American pop rankings, propelling the album to platinum status. By the arrival of Golden Age in 1996, however, the original hit-making configuration had started to fracture. Bob Rupe took over on bass, and the drum chair rotated among Charlie Quintana, Eddie Bayers, and Johnny Hott.

Golden Age produced the further single “I Hate My Generation,” and the group toured in its wake. Upon returning from the road, Lowery turned his attention to the Richmond recording facility Sound of Music, where he worked behind the board with Joan Osborne, Lauren Hoffman, Magnet, Fighting Gravity, and Sparklehorse. He also shared production duties on a Counting Crows project with former Camper Van Beethoven collaborator Dennis Herring. Outside the studio, Lowery co-starred in and scored director Eric Drilling’s independent feature River Red and took a role in Matt Leutwyler’s This Space Between Us.

As the decade closed, Cracker appeared to have stabilized around drummer Frank Funaro, keyboardist and accordionist Kenny Margolis, and the longstanding core of Lowery, Hickman, and Rupe. This lineup delivered the more introspective 1998 album Gentleman’s Blues, which paid tribute to Southern rock and blues traditions. Camper Van Beethoven soon reformed unexpectedly, prompting Lowery to divide his schedule between the two projects, whose respective members often augmented whichever band was touring.

Cracker, joined by select players from CVB, issued the live recording Traveling Apothecary Show & Revue in 2001. Subsequent studio efforts followed with Forever in 2002 and the boisterous collection of country interpretations Countrysides in 2003—the latter marking the band’s first independent release after departing Virgin. Three years later they returned via the U.K. label Cooking Vinyl with Greenland, which included contributions from guests David Immerglück and Mark Linkous. Another concert document, Live in Berlin, December 2006, surfaced in 2008, succeeded the next year by the studio album Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey, which entered Billboard’s Top 200. That same year the group performed for U.S. troops during an Iraq tour while assembling the “Yalla Yalla” video from YouTube footage shot by soldiers overseas; NPR later covered the excursion on The Show. In 2010 the two bands mounted a run of sold-out joint dates billed as the 2010 Traveling Apothecary Tour.

By 2014 the central trio of Lowery, Hickman, and Faragher had reconvened in the studio with drummer Michael Urbano and keyboardist Thayer Sarrano. The resulting double album Berkeley to Bakersfield appeared before year’s end, the “Berkeley” disc showcasing the group’s signature alternative-rock approach and the “Bakersfield” disc exploring their country leanings with additional guest musicians.