ALBUM: Denny Lile, ‘Hear the Bang: The Life and Music of Denny Lile’
There’s a common belief that artists who don’t “make it” in their field just don’t have the talent. Or maybe they are talented, but they’re too ahead of their time, or too outside of the mainstream, or aren’t easily marketable. Or maybe they’re talented and commercial friendly, but they just never lucked out and got their big break. Yet what holds many of the most creative and gifted people back is often something more complex and harder to name, manifesting as a lack of ambition, a fear of failure, or a tendency toward crippling addictions. By all rights, they should succeed, but there’s something inside that holds them back.
Such is the case with Denny Lile, a Louisville-based singer-songwriter blessed with the talent and looks of a star during the ’70s country-rock boom, even managing to attract a degree of music industry attention and connections. Unfortunately, Lile was also cursed with self doubt that caused him to sabotage his own career. A prominent country label showed interest in Lile, but he instead signed with local small-timer Bridges Records, losing his publishing rights in the process. He declined to tour to support his album, fearing that even a few months apart from his family might threaten his marriage. He cut demos of his songs for other artists to record but didn’t do much to push them or follow up with those who showed interest. It was the only the persistence of a friend that led to Waylon Jennings recording one of Lile’s songs, “Fallin’ Out,” in 1987, a decade after Lile cut the demo. The record climbed into the Top 10 on the country singles charts, but Lile never capitalized on its success or sold another one of his songs. Instead, he fell prey to alcoholism, passing away in 1995 at age 44.
Even if he hadn’t died 20 years ago, however, it seems unlikely that Lile would have been spearheading the reissue of his early ‘70s recordings. Thankfully, nephew Jer Lile, a custom guitar and amp maker, has taken up the cause of getting his uncle’s music out to a wider audience. The fruits of both Liles’ labors can be discovered on Hear the Bang: The Life and Music of Denny Lile, out today on Big Legal Mess Records. The two-disc release contains both a CD with the 16 tracks Lile recorded around 1972, as well as a DVD of Jer’s feature-length documentary on Denny. The obscurity of its subject makes the film an invaluable inclusion, sketching out Lile’s life through interviews with his friends, family, and colleagues. As compelling and tragic as Lile’s story may be, however, it’s not necessary to be familiar with it to understand the lonely heartache of his music.
While Hear the Bang contains its fair share of upbeat tunes — the playful “If I Had My Way It’d Rain,” the scrappy love songs “Rag Muffin” and “Oh Darlin’” — Lile’s real gift is for plainspoken yet introspective ballads and mid-tempo melancholy. These songs are about dead ends and missed chances, filled with the muted disappointment that comes from being used to always being down. But while Hear the Bang may be filled with heartache, it isn’t music to slit your wrists by; it’s a sympathetic soundtrack for downing a few beers and reflecting on what went wrong. The album’s very best tracks — “Hear the Bang,” “Once More With Feelin’,” “Things Don’t Stay the Same,” “Love is on a Freight Train” — touch sorrow without succumbing to it entirely. Nevertheless, the heartfelt optimism on songs like “After All” and the gospelish “Meet Me by the River” somehow manage to give the sadder tracks even more resonance.
Some great music is destined for a cult following, but Lile should have been able to find a sizeable niche among record buyers. For all the pain coursing through Hear the Bang, the songs are compulsively listenable, filled with clever, but not showy, melodic turns and deceptively simple lyrics, encapsulating feelings that usually go nameless. Likewise, Lile’s Jim Croce-ish voice seems a natural fit for the folky singer-songwriter sound ruling the airwaves in the early ‘70s. The promotion around Hear the Bang is comparing it to Neil Young’s Harvest; while Lile’s songs aren’t quite that ambitious or idiosyncratic, both albums tap into a core of genuine emotion within the often slick country-rock genre. A more apt analogue may be Young’s gentler, relatively straightforward Comes a Time or, for a more recent example, Jason Molina’s work as the Magnolia Electric Co. — incidentally, another talented singer-songwriter who died painfully young from alcoholism.
As much as Lile’s music deserves to be heard, however, there’s also a selfish sense of relief that these songs never had the chance to become consigned to oldies station wallpaper or Goodwill record bins. At the same time, Hear the Bang is far too compelling not to be shared. Hopefully now will be the right time for Lile’s music to reach an appreciative, sympathetic audience, even if it’s painful that Lile won’t be alive to see his album rediscovered. Nevertheless, as many of those nearest to him testify in the documentary, Denny wasn’t in it for the fame; he was in it for the music.
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