A few years ago, my wife and I drove to St. Louis to meet up with my brother and my niece to see one of our favorite bands, Old 97s, open a show for Drive By Truckers. (To be honest, the way the show was billed, it wasn’t clear who was opening for who, or whether they were both going to play full sets.) If you’ve ever seen an Old 97s show, you know they play some high-energy alt-country rock. None of us were familiar at all with Drive By Truckers but we figured it must be a similar style of music.
DBT came out and started their set with some plodding, dirge-y sounding songs about people losing their jobs at Wal-Mart and stuff like that. After about three songs we all looked at each other and decided we’d heard enough and took off.
I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about DBT, both here and elsewhere, so I’d really like to give them a second chance. I’m sure they have plenty of fans here, so help me out. Where should I start? What’s a good first album of theirs to get me hooked, and where do I go from there?
I’m a huge fan of both the Old 97s and the Truckers, and I can see where you’re coming from. The Truckers are very dark and heavy by comparison, and they can be even moreso live.
Their masterpiece, IMO, is Southern Rock Opera, a big sprawling double album (very) loosely themed around Lynyrd Skynyrd and their plane crash. A lot of their indisputable classics come from that one–“Ronnie and Neil”, “Women Without Whiskey”, “Let There Be Rock”, “Zip City”, etc. The three albums that follow (The Dirty South, Decoration Day, A Blessing and a Curse) are all fantastic as well, buoyed by the addition of Jason Isbell as a third singer and songwriter. (You should check Isbell’s solo work out if you haven’t–his Southeastern is the best album of this decade so far, IMO.)
That’s another thing about the Truckers–with two principle singers and songwriters, plus Isbell and an occasional song by their former bass player Shonna Tucker, they can seem like a lot of different bands. I know people who don’t like Patterson Hood’s songs but love Mike Cooley’s, and vice versa.
I can’t talk you into the Drive By Truckers, but if you like alt-country music the Turnpike Troubadours are a great band: Tunpike Troubadours - 7 & 7 - YouTube
Funny you should mention that. They had a show in KC this summer with… guess who? Old 97s opening for them. My wife and I were going to go but were afraid of a repeat of the DBT show. But by all accounts it was a fantastic show and now I’m sorry I missed it.
The DBTs are fantastic, and I’m a huge Jason Isbell fan. Their lyrics can be heavy, but they’re poetic and gorgeous and brilliant. Here are a couple to try. If you don’t like these, then the Truckers are probably not for you.
His wife (Amanda Shires) doesn’t go out with him much anymore because she’s busy doing her own thing, which is also worth checking out.
In addition to his songwriting, Isbell is a fantastic guitarist and nerd thereof. I got to see him do a Bonnaroo press conference alongside John McLaughlin, and I’ve never seen anybody fanboy out like that.
By far my favorite song by them is Danko/Manuel. Don’t get me wrong, I like some of their other songs too (though not as many as I like by the Old 97s) but there’s just something special about this one.
The DBT are, IMHO, among the premier touring bands of their generations. They tour on their entire recorded catalog, with no set list, alternating between songs by two amazing songwriters: Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley.
Stereotyped as southern rednecks, they sing from the perspective of liberals in the south, not from an “in your face” perspective, but through intelligent songwriting.
Check out their new album, “An American Band” which is less political than it is billed, but no less relevant. They recently played a live run-through online which is a rare event these days for a band
Simply amazing live show. The guys come out (on time), pick up their guitars and rock the shit out for a couple hours straight. No messin’ around, no goofy shit. Just a solid block of really good music.
I’m seeing them tonight!
Check out these tunes, A little dark and serious:
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Where the Devil Don’t Stay
Made Up English Oceans
Women Without Whisky (Whisky’s hard to beat!)
Marry Me
Used to Be A Cop (fantastic bass groove!)
Grand Canyon
Angles and Fuselage*
And these tunes that are remarkably light and almost comical:
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Three Dimes Down
Shut Up and Get on the Plane
Uncle Frank*
But whatever you do, listen to this turned up as loud as your equipment will allow:
Great band, I’ve been a fan for several years and seen them live a couple of times. Bass player Matt Patton is also a member of The Dexateens, a band based (more or less) here where I live. I also agree with all the praise about Jason Isbell. He’s putting out some really great stuff.
“Zip City” and “Ghost to Most” are two of my favorite DBT songs, which have already been mentioned. A couple more (both are Isbell songs):
“Decoration Day”
“Outfit”
Hood, Cooley, Isbell and Patton are all from Alabama so they have a pretty big following here.
Check out The Dexateens, too.
Anyone who is a DBT fan, a Jason Isbell fan, or just a fan of good music should listen to the benefit show from 2015, at which Cooley, Hood, and Isbell took the stage for the first time since Isbell left the band. 3 singer/songwriters, 3 acoustic guitars, 3 microphones… taking turns playing the songs they wrote, with all the stories you could ever want.
