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Article published Jan 22, 2009 Drive-By Truckers examining nation's new duality on new album
By Steve Wildsmith of The Daily Times Staff
Call it "the duality of the American thing" -- the dichotomy in today's social and political climate where the hope and patriotism in a new national leader is offset by the twin spectres of poverty and war.
If any band is suited to examine that duality, it's the Drive-By Truckers -- the Athens, Ga.-based pioneers of a new brand of Southern rock that return to East Tennessee on Thursday night for a show at The Valarium. The group recently went into the studio to begin work on a new record, the follow-up to last year's "Brighter Than Creation's Dark," and the state of the nation is very much on the band members' minds, singer-songwriter/guitarist Patterson Hood told The Daily Times this week.
"I think the new songs are reflective of both sides of that -- that whole thing kind of sums up the direction the new record is going," Hood said. "There was a lot of lightness vs. darkness on the last record, and on this one, it seems to be even more so."
Hood was in Washington, D.C., this week for the inauguration ceremony, and it was a moving experience to be a part of, he said. The band -- which examined the South's struggle with racial issues, among other things, on its 2001 album "Southern Rock Opera" -- is soaking up the current political and social atmosphere and channeling it into a creative outlet, and Tuesday's inauguration of an African-American president is a profound milestone.
"I've been really affected by this election -- I was up there for the swearing-in, and it was really, really moving," said Hood, whose love of his home state of Alabama -- the center of some of the most vicious Civil Rights struggles in the 1960s -- is well-documented. "There were 3 million people there, and just to look around and see such a multi-cultural crowd was really a great feeling. You could look around and see a lot of older black people with tears running down their faces, and a lot of older white people with tears running down their faces, too -- including me.
"I think it's a really big step -- the biggest single step, ever maybe, in our national healing. We've been scarred by that portion of our history -- to me, it's been the single most scarring thing in our entire history as a country, and this is a huge, huge, huge turn. That's not to say it fixes everything; there are still a lot of older racist people out there, but maybe the time is coming when they'll repent and perhaps find redemption."
Redemption and grace have always been integral themes to the music the Truckers make. The band's songs from the outset, on albums like "Pizza Deliverance" and "Gangstabilly" through "Southern Rock Opera," "Decoration Day," "The Dirty South" and "A Blessing and a Curse," have always dealt with a gritty, darker side of the band's native soil -- the desperation of hard times, the illegal actions of men on both sides of the law and the power that rock 'n' roll has to pull the soul through darkness to the other side. With the new album, Hood said, the band is taking a decidedly modern turn -- not so much in sound as in thematical leanings.
"'Southern Rock Opera' took place in the 1970s, and I would say 'The Dirty South' took place in the '80s," he said. "'Brighter Than Creation's Dark' is maybe our most 'now' record ever, at least thematically, and I think this one is going in that direction. We've just started working on it, and I think we're off to a pretty good start. Last week, we cut 14 songs or something like that. Everybody's been writing, and I think it's going to be a pretty good one."
The band isn't rushing anything, he added; the members will gather between tour dates to work on it again in March and in May, and the to-be-titled CD may see the light of day this time next year. The Truckers are slowly introducing some of the new songs into its set, working them up during soundchecks as time allows, but for the most part, the new material will be kept under wraps for the time being.
Fans can count on one thing, however -- it's gonna be loud.
"I feel it's time to make a big, loud, rowdy rock record," Hood said. "There were certainly moments on 'Brighter' that were very much big loud rock songs, but there's also a lot of quieter moments on there. It's all over the map and kind of eclectic -- intentionally so -- and I think the next one will be a little more succinct and a little more upbeat and rocking. I'm real happy with what we've done so far, and I feel like the new songs are very true to us and what we've done. We're going to take it slow this year, but we'll keep pushing forward and breaking a little new ground, I hope."