I’m a big Drive By Truckers fanatic and I can never wait for the next show or the next album.  A live Trucker show is like a shot in the arm, and not in that bad way . . . The new CD is like reading a good book.  Lots of story-songs on this one.  Patterson tells smutty tales of some bad-ass characters and Cooley sings about hookers and being jobless.  You know, everyday life stuff.

Townes Van Zandt reportedly said he didn’t like circus songs much, and I tend to agree with him.  So, “The Flying Wallendas” will never be one of my favorites, but, that said . . this is not an album with a theme like that.  Variety is the spice here.  Finally, I have a studio cut of “After the Scene Dies.”  Strike the set and cue the wrap party!  I love this song.

Mad love to Shonna Tucker!  She has really proven herself as a singer and songwriter on this one.  I can see the day when Truckers’ shows will feature a lot of Shonna.  (I’m still waiting to hear Purgatory Line live, but that’s a whole ‘nother album.)  Hearing “You Got Another” was a beautiful thing.  I like “I Told You So” even more.  It’s a rocking, dancing number.  This is unusual and catchy.  Good goin’, woman!

Patterson Hood has been following the news and waxing prolific again, but you will never hear me complain about that.  If you buy one song from this release, it’ll be “The Wig He Made Her Wear”, I’ll bet.  It’s a fascinating story and you just can’t quite look away.  “He made her do things that made her feel so ashamed.”  So, she shot him.

I think my favorite Cooley cut on this one is “Get Downtown.”  Put your face in somebody’s that ain’t mine. That’s just so Cooley!

Check it out.  This ain’t no band full of slackers, here.  They keep me entertained year after year after year after year.

You all know by now my penchant for owning the physical disc.  Even when times are hard.  I’d love to tell you it’s because my high morals won’t allow me to copy OPD’s (other people’s discs) but, well, I just really like to peel off the wrappers and pop out the pretty inserts and stuff. 

And, I do like to cuss the postal system when it’s late, cuss the state of our society because there are no independent music stores – you know, get myself a little worked up.  Then, when I finally get my hands on the actual item, I run my fingers over the lyrics booklet, read the dedication and thank yous and all before I listen from track one to the very end.

From the moment I sussed out the info that Steve Earle was releasing "Townes", I knew I’d have to have that one.  It’s a forever keeper.  And, Guy Clark’s "Sometimes the Song Writes You" was getting multiple rave reviews before I’d ever heard of it, so I internet-ordered that.  Kris Kristofferson’s "Closer to the Bone" kept me camped out by the mailbox for a while.  Well worth the frostbite, though. 

Guy’s song "The Guitar" gets my vote for song of the year.  I’ve played it for everyone I know.  I ordered the double-disc-deal of Kristofferson.  I knew I’d beat myself up if I didn’t and sure enough, the live bonus disc was a delightful trip through an Ireland concert and Silver Tongued Devil tripped me all the way back to the seventies.  And Kris commented (I love to hear him talk) that his very young son had told him that was NOT a good song.  "Why?"  "You’re just blaming your problems on somebody else!"  Brilliant kid!  Yes, that IS what the 70′s were all about!

Digress?  No, details are important.  Ask Simone Felice.  Keep an eye on those Felice boys.  I think they’re up to something.  Check out The Duke and The King’s "Nothing Gold Can Stay."  Then find the backstory on that.  Simone was one sad mofo when he wrote some of these songs.  The other Felice Brothers put out "Yonder is the Clock" this year.  I like every album they’ve released and this one was no exception.  It’s fantastic.  I picked up a copy for a friend.  If you miss the opportunity to see this band live, you might die with an incomplete musical education.  Kinda like the live George Thorogood show, only not.  Not at all.  Just go see them.  Then all the songs make sense.

Hey, that Roseanne Cash chick is serious!  What a voice!  “The List” is a gently put together album of oldies that her daddy said should be saved.  She saved them.  Really nicely.  And, her harmony singers are no slouches, either.

Ah, what else?  Them Truckers!  On Austin City Limits!  What about that, huh?  And the release of The Fine Print was a delight.  Finally!  Beautiful!  And Wes Freed’s artwork rocks.  Read the reviews of The Fine Print on this site and a hundred others and you won’t find anything but praise for this perfectly lined-up collection of DBT songs old and new – funny (Mrs. Klaus’ Kimono-Patterson) and sad (Uncle Frank-Cooley) and touching (Thank God for the TVA-Jason Isbell). 

And speaking of which, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s self-titled, self-artworked CD/Album deal at the first of this year was a super standard-setter for all that followed.  What a pretty piece of work this is! 

2009 also brought the previously threatened Murdering Oscar by Patterson Hood..  He puts his all into all he does and does it with a devilish, literate sweetness that you just don’t accidently acquire.  Nobody had to teach Patterson how to don the rock star attitude.  He throws himself into the songs like real rock is his to save and his alone.  He’s up on that stage championing his cause more nights of the year than not and still knocks you upside the head with one brilliant song after another that he somehow finds time to scribble between his entertaining updates on the websites (alabamaasswhuppin.com and ninebullets.org) and all the worthy causes he supports..  (see Nuci’s Space).

Okay, what else?  The Gourds "Haymaker!.  And don’t miss Ryan Bingham’s Roadhouse Sun or anything that Gordy Quist and his Band of Heathens put out.  Oh, yeah, and Todd Snider’s new "Excitement Plan".  He should really be our national ambassador of good sense.  Him and McMurtry.

Y’all keep rockin’ on for another year.  I hear Deer Tick’s puttin’ out something good.  And Slobberbone is apt to make an appearance….somewhere…
I’m going to put on this new Drive By Truckers on Austin City Limits in 2009 CD and tell myself "it’s good to be alive", even though the economy sucks and we’re all eating Ramen way too often.  

So this is a pretty cool video -  Patterson Hood helping Cracker out on their new CD (see below).  Brightened up my day today.  Hope it does yours as well.

Don’t have the CD yet but love the single. . .

(video courtesy of No Depression)

So the Drive-By Truckers have another release and another triumph.  The Fine Print (A Collection Of Oddities And Rarities 2003-2008) is a collection of alternate takes, covers made for tribute albums, and stuff that just plain never made it on a legitimate DBT disc.  If you are like me, you may have already heard some of this stuff in your tremendous collection of live DBT shows generously made available on the internets but there were a couple of very pleasant surprises for me.   Plus, this is worth buying just for Patterson Hood’s liner notes. . .  I won’t spoil the surprise by quoting too extensively but they had me laughing and thinking at the same time.

So, the covers.  Four out of the twelve tracks on this disc are covers.  I will admit to being surprised that  “Mama Bake A Pie (Daddy Kill A Chicken)”, is a Tom T. Hall song, written during the Vietnam war.  This could easily be a DBT song and it rings true with today’s headlines.

The versions of Tom Petty’s “Rebels” and  Warren Zevon’s “Play It All Night Long”  are both great.  And here, I’ll have to admit not immediately recognizing the Petty tune and thinking, “Oh, this is going to be one of DBT’s stand-out songs.”   And it is – they just didn’t happen to write this one.  And the Zevon tune ends up bringing in more than just the one Zevon song.  Nice tribute.

So many of Bob Dylan’s songs sound better when covered by others and the one here is no exception. The cover of Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” might be the best take of that song. Ever.  Each member of the band circa 2005 (meaning Jason Isbell is still there) sang a verse for this and I agree with Patterson here – it’s magical.

And now for the actual DBT songs. “Uncle Frank” and “TVA” written by Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell, respectively, give two different takes on the impact of the Tennessee Valley Authority on the people of the Southeast.  TVA giveth and TVA taketh away.   Cheap power and jobs vs. environmental damage and broken promises.  For those of you who don’t know about TVA, it’s just a little government project that completely changed the face of the South in the mid-20th century.

My current favorite, though, is “Mrs. Claus’ Kimono.”  No surprise if you know me.  It’s a twisted little tune by Hood about an elf with designs on Santa’s old lady and a plan for getting what he wants.  Really really sick.  I love it.

According to the liner notes, Cooley’s “Little Pony and the Great Big Horse” apparently had its start as a dirty joke.  You have to read the fine print, though, to get that as it turns out to be a really sweet ballad about kids growing up and parents getting old.  Yeah, I said sweet.  The joke is kind of cute, too.

Okay, I could keep writing but you guys get the picture, right?