Drive By Truckers take it to the people

Southern rock heroes are real road warriors

The note of weariness in Patterson Hood's voice from his Athens, Georgia, hometown is perfectly understandable. His band, Drive By Truckers, have logged serious road miles over the summer, supporting The Black Crowes and headlining their own dates. They're about to head out again, and even during a brief break at home, Hood has taken time out to play benefit gigs to aid an ailing comrade and to talk to Tandem.
Call this schedule a blessing and a curse. Drive By Truckers need to tour extensively to retain and build on their fan base, as, shamefully, commercial rock radio doesn't play them. That's inexplicable, given the group's totally accessible, high-energy, guitar-driven sound. Still, their audience is growing, thanks to a well-earned reputation as one of the best live bands around.
DBT are out promoting their superb seventh album, A Blessing And A Curse. That's a large body of work for a band together exactly a decade, and further confirms their work ethic. A key factor here is their philosophy on recording, as Hood explains.
"I enjoy making records, and I prefer to make them pretty quickly. I'd never want to move into the studio for a year, the way the big artists do. I think it's best to get in there, get it sounding good and just roll the tape. Do it as live as possible. It seems to have more energy and feels more real."
Drive By Truckers roll the tape literally, as they're firm believers in the warmth of the analog approach. "Our first four albums were recorded on digital stuff because we couldn't afford tape. For [2001's] Southern Rock Opera, we bought one reel of tape we used over and over. That was the low budget punk-rock analog compromise. I'd rather put my money into tape than spending a bunch of extra time. Get it on some tape where it sounds really good and keep it spontaneous."
Since Patterson and Mike Cooley formed DBT in Athens, they've gone through a few personnel changes, and now include a third writer, Jason Isbell. Three writers and singers and a three-axe guitar attack gives the band real dynamic range and a potent musical punch.
"Each person brings in the song and then we take it from there," Hood explains. "Everyone is pretty much into serving the song. We all try to be as ego-free as possible. Everyone can go work on their side or solo projects for the things that don't really work in the context of this band."
In fact, Hood has just completed a new solo album, described as "power pop, with a big Big Star influence." It features his DBT bandmates, producer David Barbe, friends from Athens, and his father. David Hood is a legendary bassist, and part of the famed Muscle Shoals rhythm section that played on hit records by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge, Rod Stewart and Paul Simon. "We had a great time.That was a lifelong I thing I really wanted to do," says Patterson.
DBT's style has been termed alt-country, cowpunk and psychobilly, but can best be called Southern rock with a brain. Beneath the sonic firepower lurks a literary intelligence, infused with a strong social and moral conscience. Their songs depict drifters, drunks, losers, and those just trying to survive in hard times, and The South is a consistent theme and backdrop..
In fact, the band first made a real splash with Southern Rock Opera (it was exactly that), while the subsequent Decoration Day and 2004's The Dirty South further explored the subject. Hood acknowledges that the songs on A Blessing And A Curse are a little more universal in scope.
"We'd become known so synonymously with those kinds of things. On the new record, we wanted to do something not quite so geographically specific. That was likely more of a sidestep than a permanent thing, though. I've always liked music that has a strong sense of place, whether it is Springsteen and Jersey or The Pogues or Ramones."
Hood readily admits to a love/hate relationship with The South. "There are a lot of things about our heritage to be proud of, especially artistically, in music and literature and the visual arts. At the same time it can certainly be frustrating. My political views are certainly in the minority in this part of the country, and you can get frustrated with that, especially as you sense that people are voting for the very people that are holding them down. Here in Athens, we have a tiny liberal oasis in a sea of red Republicanism. We may have to build a fence though cos they're trying to run us out of here too!"
A Blessing And A Curse is out on New West/Fontana North
Drive By Truckers play The Phoenix on Oct. 18

Publication Date: 2006-10-15
Story Location: http://www.tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=6693