Album Review: Drive By Truckers

Published on Sunday 28 March 2010 11:45

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Paterson Hood and company play both kinds of music: country and western. And they play those rough nasty sorts as well, both rock and, indeed, roll.

Hood writes the lion share of songs with more than significant contributions from guitarist Mike Cooley and bass lady Shonna Tucker.

His straight to the point rockers, Daddy Learned To Fly, This F***ing Job, and the magnificent After The Scene Dies, form the record's back bone, but Tucker's marvellous country torch turn You Got Another and the feisty pop of (It's Gonna Be) I Told You So provide a firm feminine touch. Cooley might just trump the lot, though; Birthday Boy was a late album addition, but like the Dude's rug in The Big Lebowski, it sure holds things together. A mid-paced melodic rock song in the traditional style, it recalls the best of southern rock without going over old ground.

It is followed by Hood's quirkiest moment, another skewed variation on the theme, Drag The Lake Charlie. His gift for nuance-heavy narrative busts out of the wonderfully titled The Wig He Made Her Wear, which could be a partner for that other southern gothic classic, Jim White's The Wound That Never Heals.

The down home philosophy of the reflective Eyes Like Glue rounds things off beautifully.

Download this: After The Scene Dies, Birthday Boy

&#149 This Article was first published in Scotland on Sunday, March 28, 2010