DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS

Their latest is a “straight-up rock record” with a few unexpected twists

Drive-By Truckers’ brand of rock ’n’ roll is characterized by a full-on sonic assault led by a three-person guitar attack in the front ranks. It’s no surprise, therefore, that a guitar-drenched song titled “Drag the Lake Charlie” set the tone for the band’s latest album. “That was the first song we tracked,” says Patterson Hood, singer, guitarist and main songwriter for the Athens, Ga.-based group. “We had lots of songs that veered off in various directions but we knew going in that we wanted this album to be a straight-up rock record.”

Aptly titled The Big To-Do, the disc does indeed sport a preponderance of unbridled rockers, steeped in a ragged Southern vibe. Songs such as “Daddy Learned to Fly” and “The Fourth Night of My Drinking” bring to mind Zuma-era Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Similarly, the honky-tonk stomp “Get Downtown” (written and sung by guitarist and vocalist Mike Cooley) evokes the rowdier aspects of the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street.

Much of the Truckers’ musical density springs from the complex interplay among its three guitarists, the third being pedal-steel specialist John Neff. “We didn’t set out to be an army of guitar players,” Hood says. “That’s actually a by-product of our [2001] album, Southern Rock Opera. It’s just that the three-guitar format was a big part of the story we wanted to convey on that album.”

That said, The Big To-Do also includes moments that will surprise longtime fans. “(It’s Gonna Be) I Told You So,” written and sung by bassist Shonna Tucker, offers a sly wink to Phil Spector’s 1960s girl-group productions. “You Got Another,” also a Tucker composition, is a beautiful piano ballad laden with cathedral echo.

The addition of keyboardist Jay Gonzalez has also resulted in new, richer textures. “Jay had played in some of my favorite bands in Athens,” Hood explains. “I called him to help us do a benefit performance where we were covering Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness at the Edge of Town in its entirety. Jay came to the first rehearsal and he had already learned all of [Springsteen keyboardists] Roy Bittan and Danny Federici’s parts. He’s amazing. He’s a huge part of this new album.”

As for the album’s production, the Truckers are emphatically old-school, eschewing digital technology in favor of analog recording to capture their sonic crunch. “I’m blessed to be in a real band that can sit in a room and play together,” he says, “and there’s no better way to capture that sound than on tape.”

–Russell Hall