Released August 24, 1993 Length 72:43 Kerosene Hat
(1993) The Golden Age
(1996) Release date 24 August 1993 | Recorded March 25, 1993 Producer Don Smith, Cracker Artist Cracker Label Virgin Records | |
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Genres Alternative rock, Alternative country Similar Cracker albums, Alternative rock albums | ||
Kerosene Hat is the second studio album by American rock band Cracker, released on August 24, 1993. It reached #1 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart, and #59 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The well-known hit single from this album, "Low", helped Cracker gain widespread notice.
Contents
According to frontman David Lowery, the album's title comes from the band's early days in Richmond, Virginia. Lowery lived with Cracker guitarist Johnny Hickman in an old dilapidated house whose only source of heat came from two kerosene heaters. To buy more kerosene meant a cold walk to a nearby gas station, so before leaving the house, Lowery would bundle up and put on an old wool hunting cap – his "kerosene hat". "To this day," says Lowery, "the smell of kerosene reminds me of the poverty and the wistful hope we had for our music."
Legacy
In the post-Nirvana climate of early '90s alternative music, Kerosene Hat went platinum and would be Cracker's most popular album to date. Twenty years after the album's release, webzine Spectrum Culture noted, "In the cases when both music and lyrics are on the mark – and there are many – the record achieves something close to greatness."
Says Lowery: "We've always been a country roots rock band. We've always leaned on American roots stuff, whether it's soul, blues or country... Fortunately, our sound somehow fit into modern rock radio back when grunge had taken over the entire world."
Hickman adds, "We kind of snuck in the back door by being a band that had something to say and were lucky enough to write a catchy three-minute song."
Pioneertown, where Kerosene Hat was recorded, still holds a special place for the band members, as Cracker hosts a music festival there each year. In 2011, the band paid tribute to its landmark album by performing it live in its entirety.
Track listing
Personnel
Songs
Low4:35
Movie Star3:32
Get Off This4:26