Music Review: Hear The Bang: The Life and Music of Denny Lile

By Melissa Bratcher

The story of Denny Lile is both terribly sad and terribly familiar. A deeply gifted songwriter, who drew on personal experience to craft raw and honest songs, really should have made it, but he had demons. He had record deals that fell through and he had a moment of terrific success when Waylon Jennings covered one of his songs. Then, there was a legal battle for the rights to his songs. And then, there was alcoholism.

Is there a moment in every person’s life that if this one thing would or wouldn’t have happened, then all of these other dominoes wouldn’t have fallen? If it weren’t for Denny Lile’s parents’ divorce and if those parents had been nurturing, maybe he wouldn’t have ended up an alcoholic. But conversely, he might not have written the sort of songs that he did, had he not ended up wearing his heart outside of his body.

Big Legal Mess Records, purveyors of all the things you really need to hear right now, are releasing Hear The Bang: The Life and Music of Denny Lile, a combination CD/DVD set with Lile’s long lost 1972 debut, Hear The Bang and a short documentary about Lile that draws from his lyrics/sketch books, interviews with his friends, family, and bandmates, as well as archival footage. An additional featurette on the DVD is about Lile’s nephew, Jer, who set this whole revival of appreciation of Denny Lile’s music in motion. It seemed an Herculean task; rights to Lile’s songs were tied up for four decades of legal troubles (A Big Legal Mess, perhaps?), and Jer Lile’s passion is admirable. His uncle really had it.

Of course, all the it in the world doesn’t always help. But listening to Hear The Bang, it’s hard not to be struck by Lile’s lyrical voice. There’s such a rawness to his words, cloaked in gentle melodies. It’s that early 1970s, soft, country-infused rock, with lyrics about freight trains and heartbreaks, and lovely girls in worn out shoes. And it’s lonesome.

Denny Lile had a sweet, warm voice,a little ragged around the edges, but with a lovely, honeyed timbre that adds a richness to his words. He could break your heart with “Will You Hate Me When I’m Gone,” a raw tune augmented by weepy pedal steel and an edgy piano line. He could make you think with the cleverly quick-paced, psychological study of “If You Stay On Solid Ground,” driven by a rambling bass line and bongos. “Sugar Daddy” masks cutting lyrics in an easy, countrified groove and a nice touch of harmony. The harmonies on the pastoral “Meet Me By The River” are tidy, and the chorus is charming. You can hear how carefully Lile honed that chorus, it fairly gleams.

It’s amazing to think that Denny Lile was just 21 years old when he recorded Hear The Bang. Lile’s words are thoughtful and mature, and have a tangible heaviness to them. He had a fine voice, and such enviable raw talent it’s more than a little crushing to realize how few people heard his music when he was still around. He was destined for greater things, but sometimes destiny has other ideas. It’s a shame.

Hear The Bang: The Life And Music Of Denny Lile was released on October 16 by Big Legal Mess Records.