Drive-By Truckers Albums (9)
What The Critics Say
With a name that sounds more like a joke they've 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 haven't 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 they're 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 Neff's tasteful pedal steel and guitar work, Jay Gonzalez's subtle but perfectly punctuated keyboards, and Brad Morgan's 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 they're mimicking them, and while "18 Wheels of Love" clearly dates from this band's pre-Southern Rock Opera juvenilia period, Hood's long spoken intro is the work of a master showman. ("The Living Bubba," also included here, is a much stronger tune from the band's 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 can't make music this good if you're not pretty smart -- listen and you'll see. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'Brighter Than Creation's Dark'
Release Date 1/18/2008
Tracks 19
Label Blue Rose
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Drive-By Truckers leader Patterson Hood wrote in a post on the band's website that 2007 "was supposed to be our year of taking it easy," but it doesn't seem to have worked out that way, and that's a good thing for everyone concerned. The songwriting bug seems to have bit the Drive-By Truckers sometime after the release of 2006's A Blessing and a Curse, and while that album was a bit short on top-shelf material (at least compared to the band's work since Southern Rock Opera), Brighter Than Creation's Dark is a dazzling return to form, delivering some of their finest, most eclectic, and most mature music to date. The album's strength is a pleasant surprise given the departure of guitarist and tunesmith Jason Isbell, who had become one of the group's most interesting writers, but founding members Hood and Mike Cooley have risen to the occasion with some excellent new songs, and bassist Shonna Tucker (who's also Isbell's 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 Creation's 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 Creation's 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 "Lisa's Birthday" and "I'm 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 can't tear away the memory of a man he killed in combat ("That man I shot, I didn't know him/I was just doing my job, maybe so was he"). It's a tale of the most human consequences of war that's built from equal portions of anger, confusion, and compassion, and it's hard to imagine any other band pulling off its fusion of Southern-fried street smarts and guitar-fueled thunder. It's one of several brilliant moments on Brighter Than Creation's Dark, and less than three weeks into 2008 it's hard not to escape the feeling that with this disc we may already have the best album of the year. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'A Blessing and a Curse'
Release Date 4/18/2006
Tracks 11
Label New West
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
2001's 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 2003's Decoration Day and 2004's The Dirty South weren't concept albums like SRO, their tales of hard living and difficult circumstances in the American South gave them a unified feeling that turned the band's 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 album's 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 band's 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 Morgan's drums and Shonna Tucker's 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 band's 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 doesn't try to tell one big story, but 11 small ones that follow a similar trail through 21st century America, and if it isn't 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. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
When you've 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 aren't joking. But the Drive-By Truckers proved that they were most definitely not kidding with 2001's brilliant double-disc Southern Rock Opera, and 2003's 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 Morgan's kick drum on "Where the Devil Don't Stay," it's clear that The Dirty South isn't 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, there's 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 aren't 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 "Daddy's Cup," and David Barbe's production gives this band the full-bodied clarity they've 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 isn't 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. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
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 isn't 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 band's sound and style while staying true to their ideals and approach. If you're looking for tough, Southern-styled rock, "Marry Me," "Careless," and "Do It Yourself" offer it up in spades (and "Hell No, I Ain't Happy" sounds like it could be a new generation's "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 man's 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 isn't the same sort of masterpiece as Southern Rock Opera, it's strong enough to suggest the Drive-By Truckers may have a handful of masterpieces up their sleeves. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Don't 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 that's 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 teen's 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 that's 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. ~ Hal Horowitz, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
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 they're trash with heart, attentive to the South's 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 Hood's sensibilities beyond Southern-fried clichés to paint the South in a way that's at once campy and earnest, raunchy and longing and sad. The grassy, acoustic "Box of Spiders," dedicated to Hood's 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 it's 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 song's 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 wouldn't 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 Hood's 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 it's 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 hasn't been told. Southern rock has found its new voice. ~ Bill Peters, All Music Guide
'Alabama Ass Whuppin''
Release Date 1/1/1999
Tracks 12
Label Second Heaven
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
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 Hood's 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 who's 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 he's "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. ~ Jeremy Salmon, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The Drive-By Truckers don't 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, DBT's 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 doesn't come without its share of loss and hardship. Take "Wifebeater," the album's opener. The title explains it all, but the subject matter is accepted as part of life, rendered like a conventional love song -- "Don't go back to him, he's 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, there's "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 don't 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 they'd be of the Napster-good sort, the buy-it-used sort. But for a brief moment, the Drive-By Truckers created something whose praise wouldn't come by default, that wouldn't play immediately into critics' expectations. Gangstabilly was a thankless job, but a good one. ~Bill Peters, All Music Guide
