|
Fronted by Patterson Hood, the son of former
Muscle Shoals session bassist David Hood, the
band rules its turf with a triple guitar lineup
that immediately draws a comparison to another
guitar heavy southern rock outfit, but the truth
be told, Skynyrd never wrote songs this southern,
let alone this good. While Ronnie Van Zant and
company tossed off entire platters about good
times and good ol’ boys, Hood and the
band’s other principal songwriters Mike
Cooley and Jason Isbel cover the South like
a broadsheet, weaving tales of shit jobs, dealing
drugs to feed the kids, and murdering the banker
who forecloses on the family farm. Thanks to
the band sharing lead vocal duties among its
three songwriters, every track is a different
voice on life in the margins that Jagger and
Richards only pretended to live on the grooves
of Exile in Main Street.
The beginning of this year saw the re-release
of the DBT's first two records, 1998’s
country-tinged affair Gangstabilly and 1999’s
Pizza Deliverance; the rumor being that the
band inexplicably recorded the songs for its
second album first. Regardless, the band was
obviously red hot from the start and continues
through Southern Rock Opera, 2003’s Decoration
Day and last year’s The Dirty South, upping
its own ante with every release. At a time when
it’s become a rarity for a band with one
great songwriter to emerge from the muck of
modern American rock, the Drive-By-Truckers
have three; none of which appear to show any
signs of writers’ block. Rarity? Hell,
this is a triumph, one that should leave fans
and critics alike dumfounded why there wasn’t
a single tickertape parade south of the Mason-Dixon
(or north for that matter) for a group of three
guitar players who fight tougher than any Lee,
Bush or Van Zant. Instead, this band who would
be king works the trenches, rules the road instead
of the airwaves and rarely if ever, looks back
at its own face on a magazine cover. Somehow,
it all fits, not that I could ever imagine a
band who kicks an album off with a song about
brother/sister incest sharing VH1 top 10 space
with say, R Kelly.
See this band as often as you can. A couple
of years ago, I pulled myself through a blizzard
and abandoned streets to see Drive-By-Truckers
for the first time, knowing them by name only.
By the first chorus it felt like a pilgrimage.
That’s all it took.
back to top |
