{"id":3322,"date":"2011-08-10T00:46:53","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T07:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3322"},"modified":"2011-08-10T00:55:05","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T07:55:05","slug":"drive-by-truckers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/drive-by-truckers\/","title":{"rendered":"DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS<\/h1>\n

Their latest is a \u201cstraight-up rock record\u201d with a few unexpected twists<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Drive-By Truckers\u2019 brand of\u00a0rock \u2019n\u2019 roll is characterized by a full-on sonic assault led by a three-person guitar attack in the front ranks. It\u2019s no surprise, therefore, that a guitar-drenched song titled \u201cDrag the Lake Charlie\u201d set the tone for the band\u2019s latest album. \u201cThat was the first song we tracked,\u201d says Patterson Hood, singer, guitarist and main songwriter for the Athens, Ga.-based group. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aptly titled The Big To-Do<\/em>, the disc does indeed sport a preponderance of unbridled rockers, steeped in a ragged Southern vibe. Songs such as \u201cDaddy Learned to Fly\u201d and \u201cThe Fourth Night of My Drinking\u201d bring to mind Zuma<\/em>-era Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Similarly, the honky-tonk stomp \u201cGet Downtown\u201d (written and sung by guitarist and vocalist Mike Cooley) evokes the rowdier aspects of the Rolling Stones\u2019 Exile on Main Street<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Much of the Truckers\u2019 musical density springs from the complex interplay among its three guitarists, the third being pedal-steel specialist John Neff. \u201cWe didn\u2019t set out to be an army of guitar players,\u201d Hood says. \u201cThat\u2019s actually a by-product of our [2001] album, Southern Rock Opera<\/em>. It\u2019s just that the\u00a0three-guitar format was a big part of the story we wanted to convey on that album.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, The Big To-Do<\/em> also includes moments that will surprise longtime\u00a0fans. \u201c(It\u2019s Gonna Be) I Told You So,\u201d written and sung by bassist Shonna Tucker, offers a sly wink to Phil Spector\u2019s 1960s\u00a0girl-group productions. \u201cYou Got Another,\u201d also a Tucker composition,\u00a0is a beautiful piano ballad laden with\u00a0cathedral echo.<\/p>\n

The addition of keyboardist Jay Gonzalez has also resulted in new, richer textures. \u201cJay had played in some of my favorite bands in Athens,\u201d Hood explains. \u201cI called him to help us do a benefit performance where we were covering Bruce Springsteen\u2019s Darkness at the Edge of Town<\/em> in its entirety. Jay came to the first rehearsal and he had already learned all of [Springsteen keyboardists] Roy Bittan and Danny Federici\u2019s parts. He\u2019s amazing. He\u2019s a huge part of this new album.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the album\u2019s production, the Truckers are emphatically old-school, eschewing digital technology in favor of analog recording to capture their sonic crunch. \u201cI\u2019m blessed to be in a real band that can sit in a room and play together,\u201d he says, \u201cand there\u2019s no better way to capture that sound than on tape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Russell Hall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS Their latest is a \u201cstraight-up rock record\u201d with a few unexpected twists Drive-By Truckers\u2019 brand of\u00a0rock \u2019n\u2019 roll is characterized by a full-on sonic assault led by a three-person guitar attack in the front ranks. It\u2019s no surprise, therefore, that a guitar-drenched song titled \u201cDrag the Lake Charlie\u201d set the tone for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[2372,49,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3322"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3330,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions\/3330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}