Drive-By Truckers | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Boasting a mix of Southern pride, erudite lyrics, and a muscled three-guitar attack, Drive-By Truckers became one of the most well-respected alternative country-rock acts of the 2000s. Led by frontman Patterson Hood and featuring a rotating cast of Georgia and Alabama natives, the band celebrated the South while refusing to paint over its spotty past. History, folklore, politics, and character studies all shared equal space in the Truckers catalog, which offered up its first blast of gutsy, twangy rock with 1998s Gangstabilly. However, it was the bands ambitious double-disc concept album, The Southern Rock Opera, that became its unlikely magnum opus. A two-act affair, the album explored Hoods fascination with 70s Southern rock (specifically Lynyrd Skynyrd) while tackling the cultural contradictions of the region, and it helped lay the groundwork for much of the bands later work. In 1985, college friends Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood (whose father, David Hood, was a Muscle Shoals session player who played bass on the Staple Singers "Ill Take You There") formed a punk-inspired band named Adams House Cat. The group split up six years later, and Cooley and Hood launched several follow-up projects before moving to different cities. They eventually returned to Athens, Georgia, where they formed Drive-By Truckers in 1996. Gangstabilly announced the bands official debut in 1998, and the follow-up album Pizza Deliverance saw Cooley emerging as a strong songwriter in his own right. (The contrast between Cooley and Hoods songs, as well as those compositions written by bandmembers Rob Malone, Shonna Tucker, and Jason Isbell, would soon prove to be one of the Truckers biggest strengths.) In 2000, the band documented its strength as a live act with Alabama Ass Whuppin, a concert recording taken from a show in Athens. The vision for Drive-By Truckers heralded rock opera took shape as Hood began to address his own Southern roots. Recorded during a September heat wave in Birmingham, Alabama -- and boasting the bands three-guitar attack (à la Skynyrd) -- the album veered from nervy, powerful rock & roll to a bruised, jagged tone that recalled Neil Young & Crazy Horse. It was also an underground success, receiving a four-star rating from Rolling Stone and catching the ear of roots rock label Lost Highway, which reissued the album in 2002. Unfortunately for the label, many people who would otherwise have purchased the album already owned a copy; unfortunately for the Truckers, they were released from their contract just as their first album for Lost Highway was finished. After several months of between-label limbo, the band was picked up by New West Records, a Texas-based label that released Decoration Day in mid-2003. The album featured several songs by newcomer Jason Isbell, a young singer/guitarist who had replaced Rob Malone two years prior. Tour dates and further lineup changes followed the albums release, with bassist Earl Hicks departing and studio musician Shonna Tucker (who was also Isbells wife) climbing aboard to join Hood, Cooley, Isbell, and drummer Brad Morgan. The new lineup made its debut on 2004s The Dirty South, a concept album that spun Southern tales of small towns, violent sheriffs, and legendary record producers. A concert DVD, Live at the 40 Watt: August 27 & 28, 2004, arrived in 2005, followed one year later by Isbells final album with the group, A Blessing and a Curse. In light of Isbells decision to quit the band in favor of a solo career, pedal steel guitarist John Neff officially joined in 2007, having contributed to several Drive-By Truckers albums in the past. Brighter Than Creations Dark introduced the revised lineup in 2008; additionally, it showcased Shonna Tuckers abilities as a songwriter, marking the first time that any of her contributions had appeared on record. Drive-By Truckers returned to the road that summer to support the records release. Although the band remained on tour well into 2009, the Truckers also found time to release their second concert album, Live from Austin TX, as well as a collection of unreleased material entitled The Fine Print: A Collection of Oddities and Rarities. Patterson Hood rounded out the year by recording his second solo record, Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs), and gathering his bandmates back together after its release for another round of recording sessions. Two albums resulted from those sessions, 2010s The Big To-Do and 2011s Go-Go Boots, both of which were released by ATO Records, and featured the groups new keyboard player, Jay Gonzalez, who also contributed to Hoods third solo effort, 2012s Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance. Meanwhile, New West Records combed through the bands first decade of material to help compile Ugly Buildings, Whores, and Politicians: Greatest Hits 1998-2009, which marked the bands final release for New West in August 2011. In 2012, Mike Cooley followed Hoods lead with his debut solo effort, The Fool on Every Corner, drawn from a pair of solo acoustic performances. Returning to the studio in 2013 with longtime producer David Barbe, the group (now a five-piece with the departure of John Neff and the addition of new bassist Matt Patton, who replaced Tucker after she left for a solo career) opted for a stripped-back sound for its 12th album, 2014s English Oceans. The DBTs followed the release of English Oceans with their usual rounds of extensive touring, and a three-night stand at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco in the fall of 2014 was recorded for the groups most ambitious live album to date. The three-CD (or five-LP) concert set Its Great to Be Alive! was issued by ATO in October 2015. In 2016, as issues of race, class, and violence became dishearteningly common in the daily news, Drive-By Truckers recorded their most explicitly political album to date. American Band found the band speaking directly about the growing divisions in the United States, with Hood and Cooley each taking on an equal share of the songwriting. American Band was released in September 2016, and followed by a run of concerts they dubbed the Darkened Flags Tour. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 21 Title: Gangstabilly Released: 1998-03-24 Tracks: 11 Duration: 53:51 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Wife Beater (03:32) 2 Demonic Possession (04:51) 3 The Tough Sell (03:41) 4 The Living Bubba (05:55) 5 Late for Church (05:26) 6 Panties in Your Purse (04:41) 7 Why Henry Drinks (04:13) 8 18 Wheels of Love (04:10) 9 Steve McQueen (05:12) 10 Buttholeville (05:25) 11 Sandwiches for the Road (06:40) |
| Gangstabilly : Allmusic album Review : The Drive-By Truckers dont need an agenda to be a good band. Sure, Southern Rock Opera more or less anointed the Truckers as a smarter, more attentive Lynyrd Skynyrd, and critics, in turn, made them famous for all the wrong reasons. And while critics tossed around adjectives like "brash" and "raunchy" and dug out their riffs on Southern rock revival and the renovation of country, Gangstabilly, DBTs debut, went largely overlooked. No mock-rock operas or anxious, insistent Southernism here -- Gangstabilly keeps its charm by keeping it simple. Whereas post-Pizza Deliverance DBT tended to veer into weathered tailgate-party twang, Gangstabilly is a swamp of mushy drums, scraggly acoustics, and pedal-steel whimper -- a catalog of trashy but telling details and broader yet personal pangs. NASCAR, monster-truck rallies, and countless episodes of COPS and America Undercover have melted the South down into a handful of stereotypes. But if frontman Patterson Hood has shown anything, all you have to do to cut through the velvet Elvis/TV rodeo/Haffenreffer muck of white-trash clichés is simply treat them seriously. While DBT retain a campy sensibility to distance themselves from their songs, the Truckers South doesnt come without its share of loss and hardship. Take "Wifebeater," the albums opener. The title explains it all, but the subject matter is accepted as part of life, rendered like a conventional love song -- "Dont go back to him, hes a wife beater." The drums lurch, the pedal steel rises like steam, the harmonies go bullfrog-croak low, and Hood puts you inside a would-be dismissed act of domestic violence. Then, theres "Panties in Your Purse" -- a title which tells a whole newly painful story of a night of drinkin and cheatin in and of itself. But perhaps more than any song in their back catalog, "The Living Bubba" perfects the Truckers combination of tough but hurt. Dedicated to the late Atlanta guitarist Gregory Dean Smalley, "The Living Bubba" comes through with an introverted, slowly ascending verse and a chorus you can flick a Bic to. Bottom line: do yourself a favor and dont ignore this album. The sad songs are sad the way you want them to be, the ballsier songs tempered with a little mellow manly pain. After Gangstabilly, the Drive-By Truckers would provide good albums, sure, but theyd be of the Napster-good sort, the buy-it-used sort. But for a brief moment, the Drive-By Truckers created something whose praise wouldnt come by default, that wouldnt play immediately into critics expectations. Gangstabilly was a thankless job, but a good one. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 21 Title: Pizza Deliverance Released: 1999-05-11 Tracks: 14 Duration: 1:06:28 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Bulldozers and Dirt (04:29) 2 Nine Bullets (04:05) 3 Uncle Frank (05:29) 4 Too Much Sex (Too Little Jesus) (03:16) 5 Box of Spiders (03:30) 6 One of These Days (05:15) 7 Margo and Harold (04:51) 8 The Company I Keep (07:02) 9 The Presidents Penis Is Missing (04:12) 10 Tales Facing Up (05:03) 11 Love Like This (05:23) 12 Mrs. Dubose (05:40) 13 Zoloft (03:17) 14 The Night G.G. Allin Came to Town (04:50) |
| Pizza Deliverance : Allmusic album Review : An Alabama alt-country band puts out an album named Pizza Deliverance -- sounds like a gimmick, right? Another band taking potshots at double-wides, velvet Elvises, and appearances on Cops, riding the ironic white-trash train. Make no mistake, the Drive-By Truckers are white trash by trade. But theyre trash with heart, attentive to the Souths smaller details without being condescending, sensitive without being sentimental. Behind the greasy, sand-twang vocals, frontman Patterson Hood is a barroom storyteller through and through. And like their debut, Gangstabilly, the Truckers sophomore Pizza Deliverance extends Hoods sensibilities beyond Southern-fried clichés to paint the South in a way thats at once campy and earnest, raunchy and longing and sad. The grassy, acoustic "Box of Spiders," dedicated to Hoods great grandmother, recalls the vague fears, quirks, and possibilities of his childhood while the Old South deteriorates over his shoulder. "Margo and Harold" creeps through an account of a friendship gone quietly awry, replete with doped-up fifty-something couples, unreturned phone calls, known or unknown affairs, awkward dinners, Corvettes, and anti-depressants. But its not all unspoken tension in the Truckers South. "Too Much Sex (Too Little Jesus)" remains fun and upbeat, with a bit of a pang under the songs mock reprimand. The ballsy, bluesy, seven-minute drink-off "The Company I Keep" promises to be popular with the recently dumped, unemployed, or anyone who can proudly look back on a lifetime of failure. But "Deliverance" closes with what the Truckers do best and wouldnt do again on either Southern Rock Opera or Decoration Day. "The Night G.G. Allin Came to Town" offers five minutes that halt the world in mid-orbit. Pedal steel guitar melts over Hoods account of a boring Memphis evening rescued by a G.G. Allin concert. As the song describes: "He took a sh*t on the stage and started throwing it into the crowd," but its presented with such ache and desperation that it feels like the one thing standing between Hood and emotional crisis, the only path to salvation as "Memphis was sinking into the Mississippi." Whereas Gangstabilly left listeners wanting more and Southern Rock Opera played like an overblown sermon, Pizza Deliverance finds the Drive-By Truckers just where they want to be -- making balls-to-the-wall rock whose only agenda is to tell a story about the South that hasnt been told. Southern rock has found its new voice. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 21 Title: Alabama Ass Whuppin Released: 2000 Tracks: 13 Duration: 1:11:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Why Henry Drinks (05:04) 2 Lookout Mountain (05:22) 3 The Living Bubba (07:02) 4 Too Much Sex (Too Little Jesus) (03:33) 5 Dont Be in Love Around Me (02:45) 6 18 Wheels of Love (07:25) 7 The Avon Lady (04:30) 8 Margo and Harold (07:13) 9 (Alabama Ass Whuppin Banter) (01:07) 10 Buttholeville (05:45) 11 Steve McQueen (09:20) 12 People Who Died (04:36) 13 Love Like This (07:22) |
| Alabama Ass Whuppin' : Allmusic album Review : A live recording featuring a great collection of punk-based country rock. This is some stomping, driving music, with an urgency not heard in most alt-country. Patterson Hoods raspy vox perfectly fit the music, and the warm guitar sound dominates. Since this is a live album, the songs incorporate some extended bluesy jams. The performance is staggering enough to elicit the drunken shouts for "More!" at the end of the album. The punk roots of the band are evident, most explicitly in the Jim Carroll cover on track 11. "Steve McQueen" is a rousing tribute to a childhood hero, which segues into "Gimme Three Steps" and back again. "The Avon Lady" is an improvised tale of a neighbor whos a tad overzealous in the pushing of make-up products. "Margo & Harold," a song about how people grow weirder with each passing year, also does the service of explaining the title. The most powerful track on the disc is "The Living Bubba," a plaintive cry from a musician dying of AIDS, needing just a little more time to live as hes "got another show." The drunken pyschobilly is what gives the compositions their energy and momentum, but it is songs like this one which gives the album its power. Great stuff. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 21 Title: Southern Rock Opera Released: 2001-09-25 Tracks: 20 Duration: 1:33:54 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Days of Graduation (02:36) 2 Ronnie and Neil (04:53) 3 72 (This Highways Mean) (05:26) 4 Dead, Drunk, and Naked (04:51) 5 Guitar Man Upstairs (03:17) 6 Birmingham (05:03) 7 The Southern Thing (05:08) 8 The Three Great Alabama Icons (06:51) 9 Wallace (03:27) 10 Zip City (05:17) 11 Moved (04:17) 1 Let There Be Rock (04:19) 2 Road Cases (02:42) 3 Women Without Whiskey (04:19) 4 Plastic Flowers on the Highway (05:04) 5 Cassies Brother (04:58) 6 Life in the Factory (05:28) 7 Shut Up and Get on the Plane (03:38) 8 Greenville to Baton Rouge (04:11) 9 Angels and Fuselage (08:00) |
| Southern Rock Opera : Allmusic album Review : Dont be deterred by the rather misleading title. Not a rock opera in the sense of Tommy or Jesus Christ Superstar, this sprawling double disc is more akin to a song cycle about Southern rock, in particular Lynyrd Skynyrd. Almost six years in the making, the Drive-By Truckers have created a startlingly intelligent work that proudly stands with the best music of their obvious inspiration. Largely written and conceived by lead trucker Patterson Hood (son of famed Muscle Shoals bassist David Hood), who sings the majority of the songs in a torn, ragged, but emotionally charged twangy voice somewhere between Tom Petty and Rod Stewart, these 20 literate tracks encapsulate a remarkably objective look at what Hood calls "the duality of the South." Rocking with a lean hardness, the story unfolds over 90 minutes, but the savvy lyrical observations never overburden the songs clenched grip. While bands like the similarly styled Bottle Rockets have worked this territory before, never has a group created an opus thats thematically tied to this genre while objectively exploring its conceptual limitations. The two discs are divided into Acts I and II; the first sets the stage by exploring aspects of an unnamed Southern teens background growing up as a music fan in an environment where sports stars, not rock stars, were idolized. The second follows him as he joins his Skynyrd-styled dream band, tours the world, and eventually crashes to his death in the same sort of airplane accident that claimed his heroes. The Drive-By Truckers proudly charge through these songs with their three guitars, grinding and soloing with a swampy intensity recalling a grittier, less commercially viable early version of Skynyrd. A potentially dodgy concept thats redeemed by magnificent songwriting, passionate singing, and ruggedly confident but far from over-the-top playing, Southern Rock Opera should be required listening not only for fans of the genre, but anyone interested in the history of 70s rock, or even the history of the South in that decade. More the story of Hood than Skynyrd, this is thought-provoking music that also slashes, burns, and kicks out the jams. Its narrative comes to life through these songs of alienation, excess, and, ultimately, salvation, as seen through the eyes of someone who lived and understands it better than most. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 21 Title: Decoration Day Released: 2003-06-17 Tracks: 15 Duration: 1:04:52 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 The Deeper In (03:15) 2 Sink Hole (03:26) 3 Hell No, I Aint Happy (04:38) 4 Marry Me (05:40) 5 My Sweet Annette (03:51) 6 Outfit (04:04) 7 Heathens (04:47) 8 Sounds Better in the Song (04:08) 9 (Somethings Got To) Give Pretty Soon (03:38) 10 Your Daddy Hates Me (06:40) 11 Careless (02:07) 12 When the Pin Hits the Shell (04:10) 13 Do It Yourself (03:20) 14 Decoration Day (05:47) 15 Loaded Gun in the Closet (05:13) |
| Decoration Day : Allmusic album Review : For a musician, the trouble with making your best album is you have to figure out a way to top it next time out, and that isnt always easy. On their first three albums, the Drive-By Truckers were a better-than-average band from the harder-and-faster end of the alt-country spectrum who blended Replacements-esque snot and slop with a Lynyrd Skynyrd-influenced shot of twangy hard rock. But it was when the Truckers confronted the ghost of Skynyrd as well as the often confusing legacy of both Southern rock and what DBTs leader Patterson Hood calls "the duality of the Southern thing" that they finally achieved greatness; Southern Rock Opera was that modern rarity, a successful concept album, a thoughtful examination of race and class in America, and a superb, balls-out hard rock album wrapped up in one proudly homemade package. The brilliance of Southern Rock Opera certainly upped the ante for the DBTs follow-up, and it would be a lie to say Decoration Day is just as remarkable as the album that preceded it. But Decoration Day is every bit as ambitious a work as Southern Rock Opera, broadening the bands sound and style while staying true to their ideals and approach. If youre looking for tough, Southern-styled rock, "Marry Me," "Careless," and "Do It Yourself" offer it up in spades (and "Hell No, I Aint Happy" sounds like it could be a new generations "Take This Job and Shove It"); but the quiet bad-seed ballads "The Deeper In" and "Heathens" and the tragic love songs "My Sweet Anette" and "Sounds Better in the Song" all display a subtlety and restraint one might not have expected from this band, while still boasting the flinty honesty of the Truckers best work. Decoration Day lacks the narrative cohesion of Southern Rock Opera, but all of these songs are informed by the experience of living and dying in the Deep South, described with a deeply felt compassion but with no false illusions, and the DBTs draw their portraits with a deep and telling eye for the details; Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp never wrote a Farm Aid song as bitter and pointed as "Sink Hole," while "Outfit" and the title tune both celebrate a mans Alabama heritage while examining the toll it has claimed of his sons. Somber and smart, Decoration Day also manages to kick like a mule, and if isnt the same sort of masterpiece as Southern Rock Opera, its strong enough to suggest the Drive-By Truckers may have a handful of masterpieces up their sleeves. | ||
 | Album: 6 of 21 Title: The Dirty South Released: 2004-08-24 Tracks: 14 Duration: 1:10:40 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Where the Devil Dont Stay (05:19) 2 Tornadoes (04:15) 3 The Day John Henry Died (03:48) 4 Puttin People on the Moon (04:55) 5 Carl Perkins Cadillac (05:26) 6 The Sands of Iwo Jima (04:12) 7 Danko/Manuel (05:47) 8 The Boys From Alabama (04:27) 9 Cottonseed (06:23) 10 The Buford Stick (04:43) 11 Daddys Cup (05:53) 12 Never Gonna Change (05:25) 13 Lookout Mountain (05:02) 14 Goddamn Lonely Love (04:59) |
| The Dirty South : Allmusic album Review : When youve named your band the Drive-By Truckers and your first three albums are called Pizza Deliverance, Gangstabilly, and Alabama Ass Whuppin, you might have a hard time at first convincing folks that you arent joking. But the Drive-By Truckers proved that they were most definitely not kidding with 2001s brilliant double-disc Southern Rock Opera, and 2003s Decoration Day actually upped the ante on what might have been a fluke masterpiece with its dark and thoroughly absorbing chronicle of hard times in the American South. With The Dirty South, the DBTs have crafted an equally effective companion piece to Decoration Day that plays on the gangsta rap reference of its title with a set of vividly rendered portraits of life along the margins of respectability below the Mason-Dixon line, from laid-off factory rats dealing drugs to feed their kids to Alabama gangsters determined to shut down the cops who made their daughters cry. From the first low, metallic stomps from Brad Morgans kick drum on "Where the Devil Dont Stay," its clear that The Dirty South isnt going to be a good-time party most of the way, and while there are some brilliant anthemic rockers on this album (most notably "The Day John Henry Died," "Carl Perkins Cadillac," and "Never Gonna Change"), and Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, and Jason Isbell have grown into a force to be reckoned with as both guitarists and songwriters, theres more than a little blood, fear, doubt, shame, and simple human tragedy at the heart of these stories. While much of America might be laughing at "You might be a redneck..." jokes, the Drive-By Truckers arent about to let anyone forget the harsh truth behind growing up on the wrong side of the tracks in this country, and the tough, muscular force of their music only sharpens the bite of their stories. They can also turn down the amps and still hit you in the heart, especially on "Danko/Manuel" and "Daddys Cup," and David Barbes production gives this band the full-bodied clarity theyve always deserved. Believe it -- the Drive-By Truckers are the best, smartest, and most soulful hard rock band to emerge in a very long time, and while The Dirty South isnt always good for laughs, it has too many great stories and too much fierce, passionate rock & roll for anyone who cares about such things to dare pass it up. | ||
 | Album: 7 of 21 Title: A Blessing and a Curse Released: 2006-04-18 Tracks: 11 Duration: 46:58 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Feb 14 (03:40) 2 Gravitys Gone (03:33) 3 Easy on Yourself (03:28) 4 Aftermath USA (03:16) 5 Goodbye (06:11) 6 Daylight (03:35) 7 Wednesday (04:04) 8 Little Bonnie (03:56) 9 Space City (04:48) 10 A Blessing and a Curse (05:31) 11 A World of Hurt (04:52) |
| A Blessing and a Curse : Allmusic album Review : 2001s Southern Rock Opera catapulted the Drive-By Truckers from their early status as another alt-country band with a joke name into one of the smartest, edgiest, and most talked-about hard rock bands in America, and since then they seem to have taken the thematic consensus of Southern Rock Opera as a lucky piece -- while 2003s Decoration Day and 2004s The Dirty South werent concept albums like SRO, their tales of hard living and difficult circumstances in the American South gave them a unified feeling that turned the bands fine songs into an even more cohesive whole. With A Blessing and a Curse, the Truckers take a step back from this approach for the first time since their breakthrough -- most of the albums 11 songs were written in the studio during the recording sessions -- and though the sound and the feel of these tunes is consistent with the bands previous body of work, A Blessing and a Curse sounds like a collection of individual pieces rather than a coherent and organic whole. But the pieces sound great -- Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, and Jason Isbell remain a triple-threat team as guitarists, songwriters, and singers, and the tough, funky report of Brad Morgans drums and Shonna Tuckers bass drives this music with both groove and force. The hard-earned wisdom about matters of the heart related on "Space City," "A World of Hurt," and "Feb. 14" cuts deep down to the bone, as does the day-to-day emotional chaos of "Aftermath U.S.A." and the title cut. The Drive-By Truckers have never sounded better in the studio as they do on "A World of Hurt," Without polishing away their personality, producer David Barbe and mixer John Agnello get the bands three-guitar onslaught on tape with equal shares of muscle and clarity, while the tight interplay between the players suggests the Rolling Stones at their Sticky Fingers/Exile on Main St. peak as much as the DBTs oft-cited role models Lynyrd Skynyrd. A Blessing and a Curse doesnt try to tell one big story, but 11 small ones that follow a similar trail through 21st century America, and if it isnt as ambitious as the three releases that preceded it, it still confirms that the Drive-By Truckers are still what they were before making this record: the best hard rock band in America today. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 21 Title: Brighter Than Creations Dark Released: 2008-01-22 Tracks: 19 Duration: 1:15:10 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife (03:05) 2 3 Dimes Down (03:20) 3 The Righteous Path (04:13) 4 Im Sorry Huston (03:11) 5 Perfect Timing (02:57) 6 Daddy Needs a Drink (03:48) 7 Self Destructive Zones (04:12) 8 Bob (02:15) 9 Home Field Advantage (05:01) 10 The Opening Act (06:48) 11 Lisas Birthday (03:19) 12 That Man I Shot (06:03) 13 The Purgatory Line (03:48) 14 The Home Front (03:18) 15 Checkout Time in Vegas (02:41) 16 You and Your Crystal Meth (02:19) 17 Goodes Field Road (05:28) 18 A Ghost to Most (04:41) 19 The Monument Valley (04:33) |
| Brighter Than Creation's Dark : Allmusic album Review : Drive-By Truckers leader Patterson Hood wrote in a post on the bands website that 2007 "was supposed to be our year of taking it easy," but it doesnt seem to have worked out that way, and thats a good thing for everyone concerned. The songwriting bug seems to have bit the Drive-By Truckers sometime after the release of 2006s A Blessing and a Curse, and while that album was a bit short on top-shelf material (at least compared to the bands work since Southern Rock Opera), Brighter Than Creations Dark is a dazzling return to form, delivering some of their finest, most eclectic, and most mature music to date. The albums strength is a pleasant surprise given the departure of guitarist and tunesmith Jason Isbell, who had become one of the groups most interesting writers, but founding members Hood and Mike Cooley have risen to the occasion with some excellent new songs, and bassist Shonna Tucker (whos also Isbells ex-wife) steps forward as a composer and lead vocalist on this set with three great songs about broken hearts and the stuff that follows in their wake. Opening with "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife," a song by Hood sung from the perspective of a man who has just died and wonders what will become of his family, Brighter Than Creations Dark presents 19 portraits of folks struggling to make sense of an increasingly chaotic world, ranging from an alcoholic father ("Daddy Needs a Drink") and a family man struggling to hold onto a little piece of the American dream ("The Righteous Path") to a middle-aged guy whose gotten a little too used to being lonely ("Bob") and an illegal gun dealer running short on options ("Checkout Time in Vegas"). While the Truckers are still a great full-tilt hard rock band, Brighter Than Creations Dark finds them slowing down and turning down a bit more than usual, and in this case it works well for them -- the homey twang of "Lisas Birthday" and "Im Sorry Huston" gives new guitarist and pedal steel player John Neff a chance to shine, and the light acoustic arrangement of "Perfect Timing" fits the lyrical portrait of a cheerfully flawed man just fine. And "That Man I Shot" is a blazing, troubling masterpiece in which a soldier home from Iraq cant tear away the memory of a man he killed in combat ("That man I shot, I didnt know him/I was just doing my job, maybe so was he"). Its a tale of the most human consequences of war thats built from equal portions of anger, confusion, and compassion, and its hard to imagine any other band pulling off its fusion of Southern-fried street smarts and guitar-fueled thunder. Its one of several brilliant moments on Brighter Than Creations Dark, and less than three weeks into 2008 its hard not to escape the feeling that with this disc we may already have the best album of the year. | ||
 | Album: 9 of 21 Title: Live from Austin, TX Released: 2009-07-07 Tracks: 13 Duration: 1:06:45 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Perfect Timing (03:14) 2 Heathens (05:13) 3 A Ghost to Most (04:50) 4 The Righteous Path (04:33) 5 Im Sorry Huston (03:39) 6 3 Dimes Down (02:54) 7 Puttin People On the Moon (07:08) 8 Space City (04:57) 9 The Living Bubba (06:21) 10 Zip City (05:17) 11 18 Wheels of Love (07:16) 12 Let There Be Rock (05:27) 13 Marry Me (05:52) |
| Live from Austin, TX : Allmusic album Review : With a name that sounds more like a joke theyve outgrown with each passing year and a willingness to assume the voice of the frankly damaged and lower class in their songs, the Drive-By Truckers havent earned a reputation as an especially smart band, fine as their body of work has been. But if you want to get a clear picture of just how sharp this band really is, picking up Live from Austin TX will do the trick. The album was recorded during a September 2008 taping of the long-running PBS music series Austin City Limits, and you might expect that a band as rowdy and hard rockin as the DBTs would roll in and blow the doors off the joint. But it turns out theyre more clever than that, and this set carefully builds from the low-key opening of "Perfect Timing" and "Heathens" through the working-class rage of "Three Dimes Down" and "Puttin People on the Moon" to the rave-up finale of "Let There Be Rock" and "Marry Me" that gives joyous release to the broad array of emotions and ideas that cross the stage. Patterson Hood is usually said to be the Drive-By Truckers leader, but this set gives Mike Cooley and Shonna Tucker room to shine bright before the lead vocal mike, and the ensemble playing of this band is something to see, especially John Neffs tasteful pedal steel and guitar work, Jay Gonzalezs subtle but perfectly punctuated keyboards, and Brad Morgans strong and imaginative drumming. When Hood, Cooley, and Neff lock their guitars together, they can summon up enough power to rival their boyhood heroes Lynyrd Skynyrd without suggesting theyre mimicking them, and while "18 Wheels of Love" clearly dates from this bands pre-Southern Rock Opera juvenilia period, Hoods long spoken intro is the work of a master showman. ("The Living Bubba," also included here, is a much stronger tune from the bands early days and one of the few first-rate rock songs about AIDS and its consequences.) Simply put, Live from Austin TX is a terrific show from one of the best and bravest American bands at work today, and the truth is you cant make music this good if youre not pretty smart -- listen and youll see. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 21 Title: The Fine Print (A Collection of Oddities and Rarities 2003-2008) Released: 2009-09-01 Tracks: 12 Duration: 57:50 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 George Jones Talkin Cell Phone Blues (04:07) 2 Rebels (04:53) 3 Uncle Frank (alternate version) (05:21) 4 TVA (06:56) 5 Goode’s Field Road (alternate version) (04:15) 6 The Great Car Dealer War (05:37) 7 Mama Bake a Pie (Daddy Kill a Chicken) (03:19) 8 When the Well Runs Dry (04:09) 9 Mrs. Claus Kimono (04:25) 10 Play it All Night Long (05:10) 11 Little Pony and the Great Big Horse (03:37) 12 Like a Rolling Stone (06:01) |
| The Fine Print (A Collection of Oddities and Rarities 2003-2008) : Allmusic album Review : Eleven years after releasing their first album and eight years after redefining themselves with Southern Rock Opera, the rare concept album whose execution was just as impressive as its ambitions, the Drive-By Truckers have gained a richly deserved reputation as one of the hardest-working and most rewarding rock bands for over a decade. Having cranked out five great albums in seven years, they presumably felt bad about not having a new studio effort for 2009, so theyve offered fans not one but two time-honored stopgaps -- a live album (actually an installment in New Wests Live from Austin, TX series of live discs drawn from the archives of Austin City Limits), and a collection of outtakes and rare tracks. The Fine Print: A Collection of Outtakes and Rarities brings together a dozen songs that, for a variety of reasons, didnt appear on one of the DBTs albums, including four covers, alternate versions of two tracks, and a few numbers that didnt fit the pattern of the sets for which they were intended. The oddball Christmas tune "Mrs. Claus Kimono" is the only tune here that was clearly left behind for reasons of quality (its an amusing novelty but not much more), though "The Great Car Dealer War" has a hard time capturing the sense of menace that permeates The Dirty South, though it tells its story quite well. While the alternate take of "Goodes Field Road" doesnt match the version that later appeared on Brighter Than Creations Dark, the re-recording of "Uncle Frank" that appears here rescues the song from the bands flawed debut album, and along with "Little Pony and the Great Big Horse" serves as a reminder that Mike Cooley is truly this groups secret weapon as a vocalist and songwriter. Jason Isbells "TVA" doesnt really need to be seven minutes long, but its full of brilliant moments, and along with "When the Well Runs Dry," stands as a reminder of how much he brought to the band before departing for a solo career. The cover of Warren Zevons "Play It All Night Long" sounds as gritty as Zevon was reaching for in his original, and Tom T. Halls "Mama Bake a Pie (Daddy Kill a Chicken)" is a brilliant choice for a cover, sounding as sadly pertinent and tragically honest as it did when it was written in the late 60s. And though the world doesnt really need another Bob Dylan cover, the version of "Like a Rolling Stone" that closes this set shows this band full of gifted writers who understand how to approach a great song. Like most odds and ends collections, The Fine Print is uneven and doesnt match the consistent quality of the Drive-By Truckers usual work, but nearly all of these tracks are too genuinely good to have been left to gather dust, and even the DBTs scraps can make for a pretty satisfying meal. | ||
 | Album: 11 of 21 Title: The Big To-Do Released: 2010-03-15 Tracks: 13 Duration: 53:46 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Daddy Learned to Fly (04:44) 2 The Fourth Night of My Drinking (04:45) 3 Birthday Boy (03:36) 4 Drag the Lake Charlie (03:17) 5 The Wig He Made Her Wear (05:47) 6 You Got Another (05:18) 7 This Fuckin Job (04:58) 8 Get Downtown (03:13) 9 After the Scene Dies (04:07) 10 (Its Gonna Be) I Told You So (02:03) 11 Santa Fe (03:26) 12 The Flying Wallendas (05:16) 13 Eyes Like Glue (03:16) |
| The Big To-Do : Allmusic album Review : In his liner notes to the Drive-By Truckers eighth studio album, The Big To-Do, bandleader Patterson Hood uses running away to join the circus as a metaphor for a variety of hopes, dreams, and ambitions, adding "I never really was all that into the circus as a kid, but I sure was into the Rock Show, which was sort of The Circus for kids of my generation." Theres plenty of truth to that line, but while running off to chase the Big Top usually means escaping the realities of adult responsibility, Hood and his bandmates have become all the more willing to deal with the home truths of just getting by as theyve become more successful, and The Big To-Do may be their most intense look yet into the messy realities of life in post-millennial America. In The Big To-Do, the Truckers sing about people trying to make sense of a world thats seemingly turned against them -- a young boy whose father has abandoned the family ("Daddy Learned to Fly"), a man who has lost a bad job and is struggling to support his family ("This Fucking Job"), a wife confronting her unfaithful husband ("You Got Another"), an alcoholic who can barely remember the wreckage hes left behind ("The Fourth Night of My Drinking"), and a father trying to figure out what lessons he can pass along to his children ("Eyes Like Glue"). The Big To-Do is a subtle but genuine step forward from 2008s Brighter Than Creations Dark, but while that album dug deep into the darker undercurrents of its songs, The Big To-Do resembles Bruce Springsteens The River in that its stories of folks under punishing circumstances are married to music that tries to find some sort of grace and honor in the struggle without dulling the lyrical impact. And the Drive-By Truckers are one band good enough to make this conceit work -- "The Fourth Night of My Drinking" is a ravaged tale, but the melody builds some compassion for its doomed protagonist, and the anthemic "This Fucking Job" brings out the bravery in characters pushed to the wall but determined to get through. And just as Hoods songs are as painfully honest as any hes written, the two tales of broken hearts contributed by Shonna Tucker add another, equally powerful perspective to the album, and Mike Cooley contributes three absolute winners, including the albums bittersweet closing number "Eyes Like Glue." The Drive-By Truckers have been the best and smartest hard rock band in America for a while now, but with The Big To-Do they also confirm theyre one of the bravest, and theyve created a triumphant album out of songs in which folks are forced to look failure square in the eye. | ||
 | Album: 12 of 21 Title: When Lifes All But Broken: Big Orange Studios, Austin, TX, USA Released: 2010-07-06 Tracks: 5 Duration: 00:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Welcome to Daytrotter (?) 2 Birthday Boy (?) 3 Santa Fe (?) 4 This Fucking Job (?) 5 You Got Another (?) |
 | Album: 13 of 21 Title: Go-Go Boots Released: 2011-02-14 Tracks: 14 Duration: 1:06:32 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 I Do Believe (03:31) 2 Go-Go Boots (05:36) 3 Dancin Ricky (03:26) 4 Cartoon Gold (03:13) 5 Rays Automatic Weapon (04:25) 6 Everybody Needs Love (04:35) 7 Assholes (04:39) 8 The Weakest Man (03:19) 9 Used to Be a Cop (07:03) 10 The Fireplace Poker (08:14) 11 Wheres Eddie (03:01) 12 The Thanksgiving Filter (05:34) 13 Pulaski (04:24) 14 Mercy Buckets (05:24) |
| Go-Go Boots : Allmusic album Review : The Drive-By Truckers are a band that likes to do things the old-fashioned way. They proudly proclaim that they record their music "on glorious two-inch analog tape," they still think in terms of albums with two (or four) sides, and their sound is firmly rooted in the traditions of Southern rock and the blues. They also hark back to a time when rock bands made an album every year followed by a tour, and if the DBTs havent quite held firm to that schedule, since they broke through with Southern Rock Opera in 2001, theyve managed to release six studio albums, a live CD/DVD, another DVD-only live set, and a collection of rarities and unreleased tracks, all while keeping up a demanding touring schedule. Any band that busy is likely to believe it deserves a rest every once in a while, and in a sense, 2011s Go-Go Boots feels a little bit like a working vacation. The album is notably short on full-blown rockers and sounds scaled back from the three-guitar attack thats been their hallmark, often dominated by acoustic guitars and the muffled but determined report of Brad Morgans drums. The songs also find the band going back to the well on themes it has visited before -- the man of the Lord with a broad but carefully hidden streak of corruption in The Big To-Dos "The Wig He Made Her Wear" foreshadowed not one but two songs here, "The Fireplace Poker" and the title track, and the damaged ex-cop of "Used to Be a Cop" feels like a cousin to the haunted war veteran of Brighter Than Creations Darks "That Man I Shot." But none of this adds up to an album thats at all lazy. The craft of Patterson Hood and Mike Cooleys songwriting is as strong as ever, drawing believable characters and giving them lives that make dramatic sense, and Shonna Tucker just keeps getting better with the graceful and hard-edged "Dancin Ricky." And if the music on Go-Go Boots is less physical than what the Drive-By Truckers typically deliver, its emphatic and passionate, with an impressive sense of dynamics and as much soul as these folks have ever summoned in the studio -- theyve rocked a lot harder, but theyve never cut a more natural and telling groove. There are moments where Go-Go Boots recalls Exile on Main St., another album that makes much out of feel and the way musicians play off one another, and if this isnt as likely to be regarded as a masterpiece, its also less self-obsessive, and reveals some sides of the Drive-By Truckers the band hasnt captured in the studio before. After ten years of hard work, the DBTs are still learning, still growing, and still feeling out new ideas, and on Go-Go Boots they show that even when theyre relaxed, theyre still one of Americas best bands. | ||
 | Album: 14 of 21 Title: Sometimes Late at Night Released: 2011-02-15 Tracks: 6 Duration: 35:03 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 When I Ran Off and Left Her (Cover From Go Go Boots Sessions) (03:33) 2 Used to Be a Cop (Recorded Live in Atlanta, GA) (05:37) 3 Everybody Needs Love (Recorded Live in Madison, WI) (06:42) 4 Get Downtown (Recorded Live in Atlanta, GA) (03:23) 5 Mercy Buckets (Recorded Live in Atlanta, GA) (05:14) 6 Buttholeville / State Trooper (Recorded Live in Atlanta, GA) (10:34) |
 | Album: 15 of 21 Title: Live at Third Man Released: 2011-06-02 Tracks: 9 Duration: 00:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Used to Be a Cop (?) 2 Get Downtown (?) 3 Go-Go Boots (?) 4 Dancin Ricky (?) 5 Pulaski (?) 6 Take Time to Know Her (?) 7 Everybody Needs Love (?) 8 Love Like This (?) 9 Mercy Buckets (?) |
 | Album: 16 of 21 Title: Ugly Buildings, Whores & Politicians: Greatest Hits 1998-2009 Released: 2011-08-02 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:15:52 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Living Bubba (05:59) 2 Bulldozers and Dirt (04:32) 3 Ronnie and Neil (04:53) 4 Zip City (05:20) 5 Let There Be Rock (04:23) 6 Marry Me (05:40) 7 Sink Hole (03:29) 8 Carl Perkins’ Cadillac (05:28) 9 Outfit (04:08) 10 The Righteous Path (04:15) 11 Gravity’s Gone (remix) (03:38) 12 Never Gonna Change (05:27) 13 3 Dimes Down (03:21) 14 Lookout Mountain (05:04) 15 Uncle Frank (alternate version) (05:25) 16 A World of Hurt (04:50) |
| Ugly Buildings, Whores & Politicians: Greatest Hits 1998-2009 : Allmusic album Review : With their decidedly goofy name and album titles like Gangstabilly and Pizza Deliverance, it wasnt hard to read the Drive-By Truckers as a joke band early on, especially given their workmanlike but often unfocused mixture of Replacements-style slop and Lynyrd Skynyrd-influenced Southern rock, even if the occasional fine song suggested they had the potential for greater things. It wasnt until 2001s Southern Rock Opera that the DBTs finally managed to hit upon the right formula and began writing, singing, and playing like the great hard rock band they wanted to be as they pondered the political and cultural legacies of life in the Deep South. Once they finally cracked the code, they bacame one of the most consistently satisfying American bands of the new millennium, delivering a string of smart, impassioned albums that prove a band can be smart, hit hard, and speak with an accent at the same time. Between 2003 and 2008, the Drive-By Truckers recorded four studio albums for New West Records, and those albums provide the backbone of Ugly Buildings, Whores and Politicians: Greatest Hits 1998-2009, a compilation that offers an efficient overview of their career before jumping ship to ATO Records in 2010. While this collection offers one selection each from the DBTs first two studio albums (including "The Living Bubba," their first genuinely first-class song), this album really kicks into gear with "Ronnie and Neil" from SRO, and from then on it delivers a track listing not necessarily devoted to fan favorites or the groups most accomplished material, but to tunes that might well have been hits in an era where bands like this still got played on the radio, and in this context "Marry Me," "The Righteous Path," "Outfit," and "3 Dimes Down" sound like they should be blasting out of your car stereo right now. The album also allows the personalities of the groups three primary songwriters of this era to shine through -- Patterson Hood and his tales of decent folks living under hard times, Mike Cooleys wicked, often funny and sometimes bitter stories of rednecks long on pride and short on money, and Jason Isbells thumbnail sketches of people caught between a blighted past and a flawed present in the South. Considering that the Drive-By Truckers have released two more studio albums since the last disc represented here, and they continue to slowly but surely keep building an audience, Ugly Buildings, Whores and Politicians: Greatest Hits 1998-2009 is by no means a definitive look at the bands body of work, but as a survey of their formative years, its great listening and a testament to the power of a band to achieve something great by daring to try; few bands have grown as much through a single act of grand ambition. (Incidentally, that clumsy-sounding title is a reference to a line uttered by John Huston in the film Chinatown: "Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.") | ||
 | Album: 17 of 21 Title: English Oceans Released: 2014-03-03 Tracks: 21 Duration: 1:36:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Shit Shots Count (04:10) 2 When Hes Gone (03:41) 3 Primer Coat (04:25) 4 Pauline Hawkins (06:39) 5 Made Up English Oceans (03:27) 6 The Part of Him (04:28) 7 Hearing Jimmy Loud (04:45) 8 Til Hes Dead or Rising (04:24) 9 Hanging On (04:01) 10 Natural Light (05:15) 11 When Walter Went Crazy (03:48) 12 First Air of Autumn (03:30) 13 Grand Canyon (07:50) 1 First Air of Autumn (03:29) 2 Grand Canyon (05:40) 3 Made Up English Oceans (03:12) 4 The Part of Him (06:24) 5 Feb. 14 (03:55) 6 Panties in Your Purse (03:45) 7 Dead, Drunk and Naked (05:02) 8 Shit Shots Count (04:13) |
| English Oceans : Allmusic album Review : For years, Mike Cooley has been the George Harrison of the Drive-By Truckers, the guy who contributed two or three fine songs to each DBTs album while frontman Patterson Hood penned the bulk of the bands repertoire. That changes with English Oceans, the bands tenth studio album, where Cooley gets co-star status for a change -- he penned six of the albums 13 tunes, and sings lead on Hoods "Til Hes Dead or Rises." By accident or design, the increased presence of Cooleys songs gives English Oceans a feel of call and response, as Cooleys smart but plainspoken style faces off against Hoods more artful approach as they both spin tales of characters struggling to make sense of the world around them. While the album opens with a world-class rocker, Cooleys "Shit Shots Count," which could pass for a Dixie-fried outtake from Exile on Main St., for the most part English Oceans finds the Truckers in a thoughtful, low-key mood, with the guitar firepower dialed back a bit and both writers imagining characters whose lives range from the poignant ("Primer Coat," "When Hes Gone") to the bitter ("The Part of Him") to the tragic ("Made Up English Oceans," "When Walter Went Crazy"). Subtlety has never been this bands biggest selling point, but on English Oceans the Drive-By Truckers show they can pare back their arrangements and create something more atmospheric without stripping their songs of what makes them powerful; Jay Gonzalezs spectral keyboards add a wealth of detail to "Made Up English Oceans" and "Hanging On," and drummer Brad Morgan and bassist Matt Patton are a rhythm section that can rise to any challenge these songs present. Ten albums and 18 years on from their first show, the Drive-By Truckers are still capable of mixing things up and showing off new sides of their skill set, and thats certainly the case with English Oceans, which shows them making wise use of all their talents -- not just Mike Cooley. | ||
 | Album: 18 of 21 Title: Black Ice Vérité Released: 2014-11-18 Tracks: 8 Duration: 00:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 First Air of Autumn (?) 2 Grand Canyon (?) 3 Made Up English Oceans (?) 4 The Part of Him (?) 5 Feb. 14 (?) 6 Panties in Your Purse (?) 7 Dead, Drunk and Naked (?) 8 Shit Shots Count (?) |
 | Album: 19 of 21 Title: Its Great to Be Alive! Released: 2015-10-30 Tracks: 35 Duration: 3:15:56 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Lookout Mountain (04:51) 2 Where the Devil Dont Stay (04:52) 3 Sink Hole (05:22) 4 Made Up English Oceans (05:16) 5 The Righteous Path (05:15) 6 Women Without Whiskey (04:31) 7 The Living Bubba (05:52) 8 Primer Coat (04:19) 9 Mercy Buckets (05:26) 10 Marry Me (05:46) 11 Tornadoes (05:23) 12 Sounds Better in the Song (05:10) 1 Used to Be a Cop (06:58) 2 Shit Shots Count (04:05) 3 Runaway Train (05:35) 4 A Ghost to Most (04:57) 5 Goodes Field Road (07:32) 6 Uncle Frank (05:12) 7 Putting People on the Moon (07:17) 8 First Air of Autumn (03:35) 9 Box of Spiders (07:46) 10 When the Pin Hits the Shell (03:56) 11 A World of Hurt (07:42) 1 Get Downtown (03:24) 2 Ronnie and Neil (05:02) 3 Gravitys Gone (03:34) 4 Pauline Hawkins (06:26) 5 Birthday Boy (03:32) 6 Girls Who Smoke (04:30) 7 Three Dimes Down (02:53) 8 Hell No, I Aint Happy (08:10) 9 Shut Up and Get on the Plane (05:23) 10 Angels and Fuselage (07:52) 11 Zip City (05:15) 12 Grand Canyon (13:07) |
 | Album: 20 of 21 Title: This Weekends the Night! Released: 2015-10-30 Tracks: 13 Duration: 1:17:40 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Lookout Mountain (04:50) 2 Women Without Whiskey (04:29) 3 The Righteous Path (05:15) 4 Birthday Boy (03:32) 5 Runaway Train (04:52) 6 Primer Coat (04:19) 7 Putting People on the Moon (07:13) 8 A Ghost to Most (04:57) 9 Goodes Field Road (07:32) 10 Sounds Better in the Song (04:55) 11 A World of Hurt (07:30) 12 Zip City (05:15) 13 Grand Canyon (13:01) |
 | Album: 21 of 21 Title: American Band Released: 2016-09-30 Tracks: 11 Duration: 46:46 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Ramon Casiano (03:57) 2 Darkened Flags on the Cusp of Dawn (02:42) 3 Surrender Under Protest (03:51) 4 Guns of Umpqua (03:51) 5 Filthy and Fried (03:38) 6 Sun Dont Shine (03:24) 7 Kinky Hypocrite (03:13) 8 Ever South (05:44) 9 What It Means (06:25) 10 Once They Banned Imagine (04:11) 11 Baggage (05:45) |
| American Band : Allmusic album Review : From their breakthrough album (2001s Southern Rock Opera) onward, the Drive-By Truckers have never shied away from dealing with the political and philosophical divides that come with life in the American South. But as issues of race, violence, and the failings of the electoral process have come to dominate the national conversation in 2016, the Drive-By Truckers have responded with their most explicitly political album to date. American Band contains a dozen songs that deal with familiar themes for this band in some respects, but instead of pondering "the Southern Thing," these are stories that confront all sides of a great but troubled nation, as racism means not just the mixed message of the rebel flag but the unjust death of Trayvon Martin, and one tries to come to terms with the many ways our culture is slowly changing in some ways and stubbornly refusing to evolve in others. This is music full of both fury and purpose, but with rare exceptions, American Band isnt an album of anger but of puzzlement and concern. Patterson Hoods songs are thoughtful journal entries informed by his experiences as a Southern man who had left his home for the Pacific Northwest, especially "Ever South" and "What It Means." Mike Cooley, as always the Yang to Hoods Yin, writes and sings with greater grit and Southern swagger, but he delivers some of his smartest and most eloquent work to date with "Surrender Under Protest," "Ramon Casiano," and "Once They Banned Imagine," all superb studies of the flaws of human nature. And while American Band roars less than many of the bands previous works, it still sounds like the Drive-By Truckers, carried by the guitars of Hood and Cooley, Brad Morgans superb drumming, and Jay Gonzalezs evocative keyboard work. The Drive-By Truckers are too smart to believe they have the answers for Americas problems, and American Band doesnt pretend to offer them. But they ask the right sort of questions, and these songs werent written for the audience to cheer along, but to encourage a debate that the country seriously needs. American Band is an op-ed column with guitars, and it presents a message well worth hearing, both as politics and as music. | ||