New Music: Drive-By Truckers

There’s a few albums out today that I’m excited about (this one and this one particularly), but perhaps none more so than Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, the new Drive-By Truckers album. I think that stems from how deeply the vivid stories of their Southern trilogy (Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day, & The Dirty South) hit me, and how much A Blessing & A Curse’s straightforward, dull Southern rock let me down. I guess I'm really curious about what's next. This is the first new Truckers record since the departure of Jason Isbell last year, a key member of the band over recent years and a big part of their success. It’s also the first time that bassist Shonna Tucker has contributed lead vocals to a DBT song. All of these factors, as well as the sprawling 19-song tracklist, have made my personal anticipation, and curiosity, pretty high.

I haven’t heard the album in its entirety yet. Instead, I’m listening to the stream over at AOL’s Spinner (link below) right now and hearing many of the songs for the first time. “Three Dimes Down” just wrapped up, and it’s a gritty, raunchy sounding Mike Cooley rocker that’s worthy of late-60s Stones. “The Righteous Path” is up now, and it’s much the same. Patterson Hood is singing, and I have to say this one sounds, although clearly the Truckers, very little like traditional DBT. Hood’s voice is full of echo and reverb, and there’s some really cool ethereal slide and pedal steel interplay going on. So, so far so very good….

Stream :: Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
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MP3 :: Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife
(from Brighter Than Creation’s Dark. Buy here)
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And today Pitchfork has a very revealing interview with Hood on the site - especially for those looking for details into the songwriting process and the Isbell split.
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