Dirty politicians, dead judges, blue collar tribulations, and multiple other variants of social decay. If you're partaking in such things you're likely doing one of three things: watching The Wire, reading the work of Charles Dickens, or listening to the Drive-By Truckers. That's not to say these guys are a bunch of sad sack rednecks who do nothing other than talk about how much the world sucks, but these guys certainly don't mind hanging out on Gram Parsons' iconic "dark end of the street". I've always envisioned that if Bruce Springsteen was not on the streets of New Jersey but instead in the grimy swamps of Alabama, he would certainly be one of the Truckers.
The Drive-By Truckers are one of the last remaining examples of the "Alt-Country" movement that took off in the 1990s, and the dead genre certainly couldn't have a better living, breathing remnant then the Drive-By Truckers. I've always considered them the yin to the Old 97s yang in quintessential alt country harmony. Where the Old 97s display the sharp pop-conscious songcraft of the Beatles and Buddy Holly, the Truckers wield the raw grit of the Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd with the lyrical weight of the aforementioned Boss. I'll be frank, this is one of my favorite bands so bias here will be apparent. I whole-heartedly believe Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley (the two principal songwriters and vocalists) will become recognized as one of rock music's all-time best songwriting parternships as time passes and retrospection will help to bring to light -- as it so often does in any artform-- the genius that's been churning out of Northern Alabama throughout their career. Despite the confounding effects that come with being associated with a niche genre, the Truckers' deep and rich catalog -- Allmusic has scored all of their albums, besides their first, with over four stars -- spanning over 15 years transcends any such titles as "Alt-country" and will leave them remembered as one America's great rock and roll bands.
Similar to the 97s, their first album is their weakest album as a whole with them exploring the sounds and songwritng ethos that would come to define the band. Though cheekily titled Gangstabilly, the album still explores emotionally heavy and effective songs, such as The Living Bubba, a song about a friend of theirs who after learned he was dying aimed to play as many shows as he could before kicking it in. Such songs display a beautiful heartfelt ode to their love of music and the people who play it alongside them.
Heavy songs such as this are however balanced by wittier and more upbeat numbers such as 18 Wheels of Love, a song that may be the most authentically country love song ever written in the most literal sense of the word. The true story of front man Patterson Hood's mother and step father -- this version live from Austin City Limits comes with Hood at his most Springsteen telling the story of the song's origins -- it displays the effectiveness of Hood's songwriting even when it's not gut wrenching, and points to the promising future the band has ahead.
The band's sophomore effort, Pizza Deliverance, begins them truly finding their ethos and perfectly walks the line between folksy country ballads and rowdy whiskey-charged stompers that sound like Hank Williams spent some time hanging out with the Sex Pistols. This duality is displayed right off the bat with the first two tracks:
Bulldozers and Dirt
Nine Bullets
Undoubtedly the most important thing Pizza Deliverance did was give Mike Cooley his proper introduction as Hood's perfect songwriting and vocal foil. Where Hood's voice is rough, raspy, and jagged, Cooley's is smooth, deep, and cool; where Hood's songs can be idiosyncratic and at times abrasive, Cooley's songs can be genuinely sweet or laced with charming rural wit. Uncle Frank, one of his songwriting masterworks, captures all the things that define a great Trucker's song in a tragic character sketch about a man whose left with no option but suicide after his limited skills and resources leave him confined to a world which long since changed and left him behind.
Arriving at the near end of the Alt-Country proper era, the Truckers 3rd studio album became the masterwork that elevated them above the confines of the niche genre they emerged from. 2001's Southern Rock Opera was a sprawling double album that was explored classic 1970s rock, racial politics, and modern Southern identity tied together with a loose story about Lynyrd Skynyrd. With a powerful "3 Axe Attack" from guitarists Hood, Cooley, and Rob Malone and intellectually evocative and thought provoking lyrics, the album became a powerful opus for the band that stands in the upper realm of Southern Rock. In what may be the only song that's ever told a narrative about a widely popular song while simultaneously defining an authentic regional identity, the album's proper opener "Ronnie and Neil" becomes essentially a mission statement for the band's attitude about the place from which they come as it explores the duality metaphorically displayed by Neil Young's "Southern Man" and Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama".
"And Neil helped carry Ronnie in his casket to the ground
And to my way of thinking, us southern men still need both of them around."
They continue to explore this ideal of the duality of the southern identity throughout the album and the track, "The Southern Thing", is written with the depth and complexity of a grad student's dissertation but with the efficiency of a 5 minute song.
Divided into two acts, the album tells the partially auto-biographical story of a boy (Hood's fictionalized self) growing up in the south where sports heroes are idolized instead of musicians and eventually setting out on tour with a Skynyrd-esque rock band. The second act's lead off, "Let There Be Rock", taps the breaks on the socio-political philosophy and is a pure cathartic celebration of music that can easily set alongside the best work of the legends that inspired the band.
Naturally however, Hood's fictional character comes to his end in a plane crash as the album comes towards it's end with Cooley and Patterson putting the gas to the floor with three tracks that discuss the dreams and hope life as a musician can offer and the tragedy of the those dreams barreling down into a fiery crash before they're fully realized.
So with Southern Rock Opera, the Truckers elevated themselves above "another alt-country band" with critics and music fans alike applauding the intelligence and ambition the band displayed on SRO. The success and buzz of that record led a recording contract with New West Records, a mainstay of Americana, Alt-Country, and other forms of rootsy music. Now the band was faced with always difficult, often impossible task of creating a follow up to what many considered to be a masterpiece. With 2003's Decoration Day however, the Truckers did just that.
After guitarist Rob Malone's departure from the band, they found a replacement in the young Jason Isbell. Isbell not only proved to be an excellent compliment to the guitar work of Hood and Cooley, but also took the songwriting and vocal duties on two of the albums. His songs, more traditionally pop based than Hood or Cooley's, contrasted beautifully alongside the grittier tracks of the two primary songwriters.
One of my favorite songs by the band, "Sink Hole" takes a traditional Johnny Cash-esque song structure and super charges it with power and intensity. The track to follow, "Hell No I Ain't Happy", demonstrates these will likely always be to heavy to appeal to mainstream country radio but also exemplifies their unrivaled and unique passion in which they hammer heavy emotion into their songs.
As usual though, the band has a knack more balancing out the heavier tracks and dip into pure cathartic irreverent joy, exemplified by Cooley's "Marry Me":
"Rock and Roll means well but it can't help tellin' young boys lies"
The album continues on to tell stories painting life in the South, both past and present, with the heart-wrenching pathos seen in the works of William Faulkner. Along these lines, Hood tackles the disintegration of a family on the slowed down mid-album highlights "Heathens" and "(Something's Got To) Give Pretty Soon".
By 2003, the Old 97s had been dropped from their label, Wilco was delving into all types of experimental realms, and Ryan Adams had all but abandoned his rootsy ways. It seemed as if alt-country was dead once and for all. Scene or not however, the Drive-By Truckers churned on and Decoration Day was again heralded by critics and fans alike.
Always the working band, the Truckers shortly returned to the studio with Jason Isbell's new wife, Shonna Tucker, on bass and recorded what is, in my opinion, their definitive masterwork. 2004's The Dirty South has everything the band does best with stories about the oft-bleak nature of the land they hail from delivered with intense and genuine passion. Cooley opens it up with the breath taking moonshiners tale "Where The Devil Don't Stay":
Isbell ups the ante with his songwriting as well, with the metaphorical "The Day John Henry Died" exploring the death of the blue collar:
In his "Southern Springsteen" fashion, Hood delivers a stark story of good people being pushed into doing bad things on the intense "Puttin' People On The Moon":
The noir tone abounds as Hood and Cooley lay down a three-song set told from the opposite perspective of Alabama's most famous sheriff and the gang battle that provided the story for the film Walking Tall.
The album ends on perfect juxtaposition, with the heavy hitting live-staple "Lookout Mountain" and what maybe the Trucker's most tender song ever recorded, Isbell's "Goddamn Lonely Love":
The Dirty South became the band's best selling album to date, and again garnered high praise from critics (it was even named in Pitchfork's list of best albums of the decade!)
Since 2004, the band has continued to consistently release quality material at an alarming rate. Despite a near break up, occurring after the departure of Jason Isbell following 2006's A Blessing and A Curse, the band continues to evolve and approach each new album with a fresh stylistic approach. As I believe all great bands do, every album the Truckers put is unique in it's sound and style while all easily falling under the umbrella of the essential ethos and approach. Anyone who's curious to discover and fall in love this music I've been covering so fondly should most certainly start with these guys. I think time will go on to further expose this band as one of this era's truly consistently great rock bands, sub genre distinctions aside. For anyone interested, I'll leave with some of my favorite cuts from their albums from the past five years. However, I'm more comfortable highly recommending Truckers' entire full discography than any band I can think of, as the joy in discovering their deep and diverse well of music is a thrill that would be selfish to keep to myself.
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