Call me crazy, but I truly believe you can put a season label on most albums. I mean, think about it – certain songs are best for snuggling under lots of blankets during a snowstorm. And some songs are just perfect for sitting in the sun or cruising with the top down (if you happen to be so lucky to own a car in which the top can come down).

Since Memorial Day has passed and we can officially wear white, it’s time we really start listening to summer music. Here are my top choices for music that is especially summery. Which means these albums put me in a fabulous mood… even when I’m lying in my bed rubbing aloe on my ailing limbs.

Drive-By Truckers- Brighter Than Creation’s Dark

Other than the Dave Matthews Band, what genre of music just screams summer (yes I’m considering Dave Matthews its own genre)? Well, country, of course. It’s pretty cliche, actually. People hanging out, tailgating in parking lots, wearing cowboy hats and singing Kenny Chesney. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a lover of Kenny, but like I said, it’s all kind of cliche. So, I choose Drive-By Truckers for my summer music.

They’re country in a totally alternative, Southern rock kind of way. Meaning they’re awesome. And not the tailgating type of country you generally think of as summer music. This is more summer music in terms of hanging out on the back porch and drinking some beer with your buddies. One of my favorite summer tunes from Brighter Than Creation’s Dark is “Righteous Path,” which is just the song many of us need to to aid us in making the right choices come summer: “I got the need to blow it out on Saturday night/I got a grill in the backyard and a case of beers/I got a boat that ain’t seen the water in years/More bills than money, I can do the math/I’m trying to keep focused on the righteous path.” But I’m also a fan of “Ghost to Most” and, of course, “Daddy Needs a Drink.” Because, yup, Daddy knows it’s summer.

Jason Mraz- We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things

Jason Mraz is the boy of summer. Again, he’s kind of like the non-country version of Kenny Chesney. Please excuse all my Kenny Chesney references, but Kenny basically is summer to me. But Jason Mraz is summer too. I mean, come on, the guy is barefoot 95% of the time, can be found on the beach, and wears beachy-type hats quite often. We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things is summery, but actually, all of Jason Mraz’s albums scream summer. Listen to “I’m Yours” and I have absolutely no doubt Jason will make you feel like you’re sitting on an island. You’re alone with him and he’s playing his banjo and singing to you about how much he loves you. That’s just how Jason Mraz is.

And if you had to name a female singer who reminds you of summer, Colbie Caillat would totally come to mind first. Jason obviously agreed as she joins him for “Lucky,” the most lay-in-a-hammock-sipping-lemonade-on-a-summer-night song ever. Jason and Colbie sing, “And so I’m sailing through the sea/To an island where we’ll meet/You’ll hear the music, fell the air/I’ll put a flower in your hair.” Jason Mraz makes me want to be on the beach. Preferably a private island. Right now.

The Hold Steady- Stay Positive

Again the boys of summer. Like Kenny Chesney… I’m kidding. They’re really not. They’re just summery, fun music. Another, drink-beer-with-the-boys-on-the-porch type album. I swear I’ve always thought this way about them, but when I heard Stay Positive has a song called “Constructive Summer” on it, I knew they were a summer band. “We’re gonna build something this summer/Summer grant us all the power/To drink on top of the water towers/With love and trust and shows all summer/Let this be my annual reminder/That we can all be something bigger.” How perfect are those lyrics? But the rest of the songs on the album are equally as fabulous; I especially love the title track because it’s all about staying positive, which is most easy to do in the summer months. The Hold Steady also has crazy fun fans, making the summer all the better. Of course, most of them are drunk, but isn’t that what the summer is for? The Hold Steady will help you loosen up a bit, which is something we can all use.

In honor of a friend of mine getting married this summer we’re going to Las Vegas over Spring Break.  Thursday we fly out to meet up with friends of his from Colorado and California.  I’m looking forward to it.  This will be the first vacation I’ve really taken since I started teaching and I’ve never been to Vegas.  But Scott Baxendale has.

I don’t know Scott Baxendale, but every time I hear someone mention Las Vegas I think of his story.  He was a talented luthier (that’s guitar builder for you lay folk) from the Dallas area who burned his life away in a crack pipe.  Family, business, and friends all disappeared in the clouds of smoke.  In a two-year period he went from making instruments for some of the biggest names in the music industry to living in a homeless shelter in Arlington.  It was at the shelter that Baxendale met a man who would change his life.

But not in the way you’d think.  The man told Baxendale that he knew where to get a large pile of money and that the two of them should head out to Belize for a fresh start.  That sounded good to Baxendale.  First they needed some supplies, so the man (who went by many aliases, so I’ll call him the Unnamed Man) told Scott to go rent a car.  They loaded the trunk full of guns and ammo and headed out, eventually winding up in Las Vegas at Baxendale’s suggestion.  There they ran into some bad luck at the slots and with the local police, so they headed back to Texas after detouring through Denver.  In Denver they picked up another friend named Kevin Rutherford who would wait for them until they got back from Texas.

In Texas they found that Baxendale’s friend had turned his apartment into a crackhouse, so they robbed him at gunpoint.  Plans to sell what they had confiscated turned into a crack binge, and so the Unnamed man and Baxendale headed back to Denver.  Scott had plans to find a job at a guitar shop, call it quits with the Unnamed man and marry a girl he had met during his exploits.  But during a beer run, Rutherford and Baxendale were surprised when the Unnamed man decided he wanted to rob a dope dealer with a fake police badge.  The night ended up with all three arrested.

Scott Baxendale was cooperative with the authorities and hoped for placement in a drug rehabilitation program.  He managed to get his wish.  Meanwhile, Rutherford claimed innocence and is serving time in prison.  The Unnamed man was found hanging by a bedsheet the morning of his sentencing.

Baxendale, thanks to the rehab, was able to put his life back together.  His wife and kid moved back in with him.  He opened up the Colfax Guitar Shop and went back to building custom guitars for some of the greats.

One of those greats is Mike Cooley of the Drive-By Truckers.  Cooley and Baxendale became friends, and Cooley wrote a song based on Scott’s story.  That song is “Checkout Time In Vegas”, from the album “Brighter Than Creation’s Dark”:

Now I realize that was a long story to introduce one song, but I think it’s a story worth telling.  And I’ll be sure to let you know if the sun rises in Vegas.

These aren’t really in any order, although I’ll say that my top two are Attack and Release by the Black Keys and Consolers of the Lonely by the Raconteurs. As you can tell from my best shows post, I really felt like these two bands were on top of their game this year.

Attack and Release - The Black Keys

Consolers of the Lonely - The Raconteurs

808s and Heartbreak - Kanye West

Mission Control - The Whigs

Paper Trail - T.I.

Wrecking Ball - Dead Confederate

Only By The Night - Kings of Leon

Brighter Than Creation’s Dark - Drive-by Truckers

Tha Carter III - Lil’ Wayne

The Drive By Truckers - Brighter Than Creations Dark

The Vitals

Album – Brighter Than Creations Dark
Artist – The Drive By Truckers
Release Date - January 22nd, 2008

In a Nut Shell – The truckers ride on after a few bumps in the road, crafting another fine album that happens to feature the saddest song they’ve ever written…

The Drive By Truckers have never been a commercially viable act, they’re big, hairy, balding, drinking, smoking, most likely farting brutes and one cute woman who will always have to make their living on the road, but thankfully, that doesn’t stop them from putting out albums.

Brighter Than Creations Dark single handedly lead me to believe that 2008 was going to be a good year for music. Lucky for me, as December rolls to a close, I can confirm that it didn’t let me down. BTCD is one of the hardest hitting, most sincere albums of the truckers career…and coming from a band that has made their career on hard hitting sincerity, that says a lot.

Patterison Hood and Mike Cooley are my personal Jagger/Richards as far a song writing tandems go. Hood delivers his tales of Southern desperation with such emotion that you can forget the fact that he can’t really sing and Cooley is one of the most gifted writers in rock music today. Unfortunately history is written by those who win, so he’ll never get the recognition he deserves. 

The Drive By Truckers are the sexiest band alive

Shonna Tucker shows off her writing chops as well here, contributing three lead vocals on the album, a first. BTCDalso features keys/organ and vocals from the legendary Spooner Oldham. Who? you ask, check out his work on such classics as When a Man Loves a Woman and Mustang Sally, the man is an amazing player and lit it up when I saw the truckers in New York this past March.

It always feels great when a favorite band delivers an awesome album. The Drive By Truckers transformed me from a casual observer to a full blown fanatic this year…and with albums like this, I’ll be happy to continue drinking the kool aid.

Number 20

It was with the stunning and ambitious double-concept album, Southern Rock Opera, that Drive-By Truckers officially broke through onto the music scene, some five years after first forming in 1996. Since that time, they have gained and kept a growing reputation for creating genuine southern country rock. Their newest record, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, is as equally sprawling an effort as the aforementioned double-concept from 2001, journeying through nineteen tracks that total nearly 80 minutes, all of it with feeling. Rotating through many members in their twelve years as a band to this point, this is the first album recorded after the loss of significant staple, Jason Isbell, who went on to perform as a solo act. This time around, they seem to be more into the thought of sharing vocal duties than ever before, creating an alum that is constantly shifting voices. The whole experience is emotionally rewarding, which is what you’d expect from a seasoned band like this; but you can only get the full satisfaction from it all if you listen from front to back, at least for the first time. “Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife” is such a fantastic opening number, that it managed to still be one of the most memorable songs even after it’s all said and done, the road fully traveled. I’ve never been less than impressed with Drive-By Truckers since first hearing them a few years back, and although I still think The Dirty South is still my favorite record from them, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark frequently sounds like a band at the height of their unison, making resilience their mission and always nailing it. “Daddy Needs A Drink” and “The Man I Shot” are two of the most heart-wrenching songs I’ve heard all year, and the brilliant “The Home Front” never ceases to amaze more and more with each play. To even the most experienced and dedicated of Drive-By Truckers fans, this one will exceed even the highest of expectations. Buckle up for a good and long road trip for the ears.

1.2 Daughters And A Beautiful Wife
2.3 Dimes Down
3.The Righteous Path
4.I’m Sorry Houston
5.Perfect Timing
6.Daddy Needs A Drink
7.Self-Destructive Zones
8.Bob
9.Home Field Advantage
10.The Opening Act
11.Lisa’s Birthday
12.The Man I Shot
13.The Purgatory Line
14.The Home Front
15.Checkout Time in Vegas
16.You and Your Crystal Meth
17.Goode’s Field Road
18.A Ghost To Most
19.Monument Valley

Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark

This is one of my favorite tracks from the #11 album on my Best of 2008 year-end list: “3 Dimes Down” by Drive-By Truckers…

part ONE of FOUR

100.High Places: “Namer”
99.Gnarls Barkley: “Go On”
98.Lucinda Williams: “Jailhouse Tears”
97.Jamie Lidell: “Out Of My System”
96.Jenny Lewis: “Acid Tongue”
95.Mogwai: “The Sun Smells Too Loud”
94.Xiu Xiu: “I Do What I Want, When I Want”
93.Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy: “I’ll Be Glad”
92.Martha Wainwright: “Bleeding All Over You”
91.The Tallest Man On Earth: “The Gardner”
90.TV on the Radio: “Love Dog”
89.Collections of Colonies of Bees: “Flocks II”
88.Drive-By Truckers: “Daddy Needs A Drink”
87.The Mountain Goats: “Michael Myers Resplendent”
86.The Cure: “This. Here and Now. With You.”
85.Portishead: “The Rip”
84.Times New Viking: “Teen Drama”
83.Okkervil River: “On Tour With Zykos”
82.No Age: “Eraser”
81.TV on the Radio: “Red Dress”
80.Frightened Rabbit: “My Backwards Walk”
79.The Magnetic Fields: “The Nun’s Litany”
78.Fleet Foxes: “White Winter Hymnal”
77.TV on the Radio: “Stork and Owl”
76.The Dears: “Dream Job”

If you know me at all, then chances are you can easily guess my favorite album of 2008…but it’s gonna be considerably harder to guess what my choice for 2nd best of the year will be. Think you know?

Take your pick…

As I continue to post MY 50 FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2008, the wrong answers will reveal themselves at some point. Make your pick now, then check back to see if you know me.

Jackson Free Press

January 30, 2008

The Drive-By Truckers are an old-school southern-rock band. In 2001, they released “Southern Rock Opera,” which will go down as the best southern-rock album of the decade. The band proudly touts their three-guitar attack (a la Skynyrd) and will defend the South ’til death. But unlike many other popular southern-rock bands, the South the DBTs represent is one in which Robert E. Lee and Martin Luther King can coexist as heroes in history. The DBTs represent a South that hasn’t been co-opted and boiled down to the solitary symbol of the confederate flag.

But Southerners generally overlook the content of DBTs’ songs, which don’t highlight newsmakers who hang nooses from trees or protest the removal of the Ten Commandments from a courthouse. The protagonists of the Truckers’ songs are unpretentious, often ignored people who have common problems; problems such as having to worry about the foreclosure on the family house, or not having the money to keep up with the rising cost of living. In their songs they put a human face on these ubiquitous issues without ever getting too preachy. 

On Jan. 22, the band released their seventh studio album, “Brighter Than Creation’s Dark,” which perfectly fits into this vein. The studio record matches the energy and quality of their live displays, and shows the band’s gradual shift from southern arena rock to country. Patterson Hood, who is half the main singer/songwriting team, and bassist Shonna Tucker have a beautiful chemistry that fits somewhere between the duos of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, and Frank Black and Kim Deal from the Pixies. You can hear this on the opening track, “Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife,” on “Daddy Needs a Drink” and on the heart-breaking song, “The Home Front.”

Soul-music legend Spooner Oldham played the piano, organ and Wurlitzer on more than half the songs on the album, giving the Truckers’ sound a dimension not heard on any of their previous records.

Mike Cooley, the other half of the songwriting tandem, continues to pen strong songs as well, generally acting as the outlaw voice to counterbalance Hood’s play-it-straight voice. For every forlorn, self-destructive character that Cooley presents, like the narrator and Lisa in “Lisa’s Birthday,” Hood will introduce a persevering character, such as in “The Righteous Path.” It’s the feeling that both their characters will end up in the same dreary place that gives the music its power.

The main problem with the album, as with most DBT records, is the length. Clocking in at nearly 80 minutes, at times you wish they had trimmed some of the fat off the album, or at least a couple minutes off the five minute-plus songs.

“Brighter Than Creation’s Dark” continues the Drive-By Truckers’ tradition of creating straightforward, intelligent music, and they remain one of the few bands that intellectuals and hillbillies can agree on.

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/music/comments.php?id=16127_0_28_0_C

Awesome show. Great, great show. Completely different from the night before. Amazing. Absolutely great.

The band opened with “That Man I Shot.” They played “Bob,” “Steve McQueen,” and “18 Wheels of Love” (!!!). DBT played “18 Wheels of Love” with the start-the-song story intact and then followed it up by concluding the story with the present-day tales of Chester and Patterson’s mother. DBT also played a righteous version of Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen.”

They ended the set (before the mind-blowing encore) with a take on “Let There Be Rock” that was completely different from the night before. While the song was an emotional power-punch of a glorious rock’n'roll anthem on Friday night, Saturday transformed the song into a joyous celebration of a song. Shonna Tucker did not sing any songs for Saturday’s show.

Remember those Cadillacs that Patterson Hood parked in between without a scratch? Well, what made the performance of “Let There Be Rock” even more special was that the friend’s who’s parents owned those Cadillacs was at the show, in the VIP balcony above stage right. Even the man’s life-saving sister DD was there.

The biggest difference between Friday and Saturday’s shows was that there was more stage banter at Saturday’s show. Patterson gave a telling introduction to “Puttin’ People On The Moon” and he told of how he twisted his ankle on stage the night before. Plus, they played “18 Wheels of Love” (!!!).

Openers the Dexateens again rocked the house. It looked like most of the sold out show’s crowd showed up before DBT, in time to see some of the Dexateens, and the applause the band received was something close to uproarious. They did their Southern-tinged rock and played well. They too talked more than they did the night before, although the Dexateens’ setlist was basically the same.

Both bands reunited for another closeout jam in the encore, playing “Buttholeville,” “State Trooper,” (Bruce Springsteen) and “People Who Died” (Jim Carroll). (same as Friday)

These two nights have provided the most euphoric rock shows ever.

Thank you, Drive-By Truckers. Thank you.

- R.H.

It’s f__kin’ great to be alive!!

________________________________

What a great, great show. The Truckers gave it their all. Every ounce of their energy for one of the best rock shows I have ever seen.

You can put the Drive-By Truckers into whatever country subgenre you want, but when it comes down to it, they are just pure rock ‘n’ roll. They are, without a doubt, one of the best present-day rock bands in America, if not the world. Heck, they’re even better than some old classic rockers. These guys are good.

“Baby every bone in my body’s gone to jumping/like they’re gonna come through my skin/If they could get along without the rest of me, it wouldn’t matter if they did,” sang Mike Cooley on “A Ghost To Most,” one of the many great tracks on 2008’s superb Brighter Than Creation’s Dark. The set list spanned their entire career and contained hit after hit. Brighter Than Creation’s Dark is such a charming record, that songs off of it were often highlights. But every song was a highlight tonight.

When Cooley finished playing “Checkout Time In Vegas,” (from BTCD) the band then played the three following songs on the record straight afterward. “You And Your Crystal Meth” was brilliant and even darker live. “Goode’s Field Road” proved just why it’s an excellent song, and everyone already knew that “A Ghost To Most” is a classic.

As the Drive-By Truckers played, it was hard for me to see any effect pedals on the stage for their guitars. Then I realized, they don’t need any pedals. The only effect they need is “Southern Fried.”

I did see some pedals toward the back of the stage, but they were scarce and that was just fine. The guitars were in fine, fine form.

Touring member on the keys, John Neff on pedal steel and a third guitar, Brad Morgan on drums, Patterson Hood on guitar and vocals, Mike Cooley on guitar and vocals, and Shonna Tucker played bass with an endearing enthusiasm. Shonna sang one song during the show, her best one off the last record, “I’m Sorry Huston.”

Morgan is a very talented drummer. This was obvious right away with rockin’ opener “Puttin’ People On the Moon.”

The Truckers put so much energy out on the stage. I don’t know how they can top it tonight (as in the tenth) (two dates at the 9:30 Club this time around, the ninth and tenth of May). I’m sure they will, but last night was pure rock awesomeness. Great setlist, great energy, great, great rock music. I really cannot use the word “great” enough. Or the word “rock.”

DBT classic “Let There Be Rock” had a shining moment as the third to last song in the righteous encore. The best song I have ever seen performed live. Absolutely amazing.

And the final rock-out jam of the encore had DBT pull openers the Dexateens (who played a well-received and joyously country-rockin’ set to start the late night off (doors at 9)) back on stage (along with another guitarist friend) to play “Buttholeville” and whatever other song I could not tell by ear (thanks to the mass of instruments pervading the sound system) (the vocals were inaudible at this point. Throughout the night, the vocals were hard to hear in the club). It wasn’t pure rock fury. It was pure rock soul.

The musicians traded swigs from the Jack Daniels bottle all bitter and clean, and the show ended with one hell of bang. Patterson Hood lying on the stage, 10 other people playing music around him. And then he popped up for another round of soul revealin’ rock.

Great show. Great band.

- R.H.

Reports of the death of the CD of the Week have been greatly exaggerated… It’s only been hibernating.

Last year I got somewhat burned out on the CD of the Week thing. I decided that ‘08 would be different. I made a list of  several CD’s slated to come out this year that I considered “must gets” and I planned to reserve a more infrequent ”CD of the Week” post for those CD’s. 

Then I promptly forgot the whole thing. Until I remembered it the other day…

Suffice it to say that I’m a bit behind. The first CD I was looking forward to has been out for over a month now: Drive By Truckers‘ Brighter Than Creation’s Dark…

Let me start out by admitting I am a bit biased. I love this band and they can pretty much do no wrong in my book. So it irks me to see so much negativity thrown their way. Especially when the throwers don’t appear to know what they’re talking about.

First, let’s get the “Lynyrd Skynyrd” thing out of the way. It seems that you can’t read a review of BTCD or an article about DBT without the ghost of Skynyrd being conjured up. Even a figure as respectable as Robert Christgau has pulled this trick. It’s simply lazy reviewing. The similarities are superficial at best (3 guitar player, southern band). The differences are deeper and much more numerous. Nothing against Skynyrd, but it’s ridiculous - akin to comparing Black Sabbath to The Beatles just because both were 4 member bands from England.

Another criticism I’ve heard over and over is that Brighter Than Creation’s Dark is too long. If some of the songs aren’t as good as the rest and should have been omitted, then just state that opinion. I might even agree with you. But simply saying the record is too long with no further explanation is just silly. Was Blonde On Blonde too long? Was the White Album too long? Exile On Main Street? The Wall?

I have also seen more than one music blogger refer to “Daddy Needs a Drink” as the best song the DBT’s have ever recorded. I couldn’t disagree more. It’s a good song but certainly not their greatest. Patterson Hood ’s songwriting shines much more clearly on “Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife” – a song he wrote about Bryan Harvey and his family who were brutally murdered in the 2006 Richmond killing spree:

But Mike Cooley is the songwriter who really stands out on BTCD. Cooley proves he has the ability to write some truly memorable melodies and unforgettable lyrics:

I used to hate the fool in me only but only in the morning now I tolerate him all day long (Perfect Timing)

Talkin’ tough’s easy when it’s other people’s evil and you’re judging what they do or don’t believe
Seems to me you’d have to have a hole in your own to point a finger at somebody else’s sheet (A Ghost to Most)

Bottom line: Maybe it could be shorter but at $11.99 for 19 songs, I don’t see why anyone is complaining. It’s a great CD by a great band. Go buy it.

Music: It’s been a long and arduous task getting through the 700+ songs included in the SXSW torrent but I’m getting there. AA Bondy is a favourite at the moment and I also enjoyed Pigeon John. Alongside these, I’m really enjoying a retreat to 2004 with the Futureheads’ great debut album and the new tracks released by The Breeders and the entire new albums by Drive-By Truckers, Mountain Goats and the umimpeachable Nick Cave.

Film: Busy on this front, trying mainly to catch up on notable films I missed last year. I really enjoyed Into The Wild despite any rose-tintedness on show by Sean Penn. I liked In the Valley of Elah much more than I did the pompous and weak Crash. I also utterly adored A Mighty Heart in which Angelina Jolie gives a shockingly brilliant performance. The moment when she breaks down after she finds out her husband’s fate cuts through any emotional defence you could ever put up.

TV: The Wire. Oh, The Wire. The greatest show ever to grace television comes to an end this week and all of you who haven’t watched yet, shame on you. Shame. On. You. I also took in the first ever episode of Deadwood again and was reminded of its brilliance. Lost is still great and the Desmond episode ruled. Mostly it’s been America’s Next Top Model though since cycle 10 started. If The Wire is the greatest show of all time, ANTM is the greatest reality show.

Books/Comics: I liked Then We Came to an End by Joshua Ferris but found is somewhat disappointing. I’ve just started Michael Chabon’s Yiddish Policeman’s Union and I’m absolutely loving it so far. I’ve not really taken in too many comics except for Achewood which as always, I adore.

Other: Today we fried portobello mushrooms in a garlic butter sauce topped with pepper, salt and chilli garnished cheese. This was accompanied by peppadew peppers stuffed with feta cheese. Divine!

In what was to be a slow year for the Drive-By Truckers, they sure found ways of keeping busy in 2007. After band member Jason Isbell left the band in early spring to pursue a solo career the Truckers shortly departed on a tour which would carry them thru the fall playing more of an acoustic show then anyone who has seen them live before would expect. Throughout the dubbed “Dirt Underneath Tour” new songs would be debuted and worked out. These songs, when treated to some studio polish, would become the Truckers eighth album, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark. Oh yeah they also recorded an album with Betty Levatte which has been nominated for a Grammy, that’s all in an “off-year.”

At 19 songs and 75 minutes one would assume that Brigher would be bloated with a couple filler songs but every track here is a winner and makes sense as a part of the whole album. This is a true album, not a collection of songs. Patteron Hood himself compared the album and it’s length to the Rolling Stones’ classic Exile on Main Street thusly: “Exile on Main Street has lots of filler, yet I would hate to part with a single note of it.” While musical styles can vary greatly from song to song, from solid gold country to rock to soul, Brighter has a cohesiveness and flow few bands today even attempt and fewer still successfully accomplish.

Brighter Than Creation’s Dark is a portrait of a good band becoming great. Listening to it the first time gives you the feeling of what it must have been like to listen to one of the classic rock ‘n’ roll albums, Exile, Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti or The Band’s Music From Big Pink or the like for the first time back in the late 60’s/early 70’s and just knowing that this will be an album that will be with you for the rest of your life.

Standout Track: The Righteous Path

Drive-By Truckers
MySpace
Brighter Than Creaton’s Dark (stream)

The new Drive-by Truckers album came out last week. I was really nervous to listen to the album because of the departure of Jason Isbell. Isbell was my favorite writer for the Truckers and I was very afraid that his absence would be the end of the band. Brighter than Creation’s Dark was way more than I expected. I knew Patterson would have his three or four great songs on the album but other than that I did not know where it would go. While Mike Cooley stepped up in a huge way by filling some of the song writing void left by Isbell, I was most surprised by the songs written by Shonna Tucker.   Shonna hasn’t written any previous songs for the Truckers that I am aware of. Her voice is really great and her songwriting skills are on point. I don’t understand why she has not been a bigger focus on past albums. Her soothing, feminine voice really adds a new level to the Truckers sound.Check out Purgatory Line and I’m Sorry Huston. Perhaps it took Isbell’s leaving for Shonna to feel like she needed to add something more to the band. The future looks like its going to be okay for the Truckers. 

Athens, GA. based band Drive-By Truckers tend to work on an epic scale, and their new album, is no exception, with its 19 songs by three songwriters that span 75 minutes. If there’s a running theme to be found in Brighter Than Creations Dark, it may be exemplified by “The Righteous Path”: Despite being afflicted by heavy burdens, be they life during wartime or else woes economic, domestic, or drug or alcohol related, the mostly rural and small town characters who populate the album’s songs find themselves struggling to stay on a righteous path, or else discover themselves far astray from it. Their subject matter may be frequently grim but it’s also sympathetic in the way that Springsteen was sympathetic on defining albums like Darkness On The Edge Of Town and The River. The music is rock, rock often informed by country influences, but straight ahead rock, nevertheless. Not every song is a hit, but there’s enough strong material here to merit declaring Brighter Than Creations Dark one of Drive-By Trucker’s finest works yet. Standout cuts: “The Righteous Path,” “Opening Act,” “The Purgatory Line” and “A Ghost To Most.”

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Billboard – The Drive-By Truckers’ seventh album is a sprawling scorcher, and while these guys certainly aren’t strangers to long records, “Brighter Than Creation’s Dark” is one of the meanest, leanest 19-track albums you’ll ever spin. Yet where DBT usually hits the ground running, “Dark” is deliberately slower to burn, full of beautifully considered stories of soldiers and fathers and drinkers that call to mind nothing less than “The River.” A surprisingly prolific Mike Cooley turns in the countried-up “Bob,” “A Ghost to Most” and the rocker “Self-Destructive Zones,” all smooth-going-down shots of squinty-eyed, serrated humor, while Patterson Hood is in never-better form on “Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife” and “Monument Valley,” the record’s John Ford-quoting closer. “Dark” also benefits from the expanded roles given pedal-steel maestro John Neff and bassist Shonna Tucker, whose first DBT tracks (including the shimmering “The Purgatory Line”) channel Patty Griffin and whose harmony vocals add welcome, newfound atmosphere.

• Drive-By Truckers – Self-Destructive Zones.mp3