Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do

Lovingly pinched from Pitchfork: On their first two albums (1998’s Gangstabilly and 1999’s Pizza Deliverance), the Drive-By Truckers were supreme redneck jokesters, specializing in scabrous white-trash vignettes owing more to Southern Gothic fiction (Flannery O Connor, Barry Hannah) than any sub-Mason-Dixon stand-up hacks.

As the band matured and its de facto frontman Patterson Hood started writing songs that were weightier and more universal in sentiment, however, its more darkly off-kilter early work came to be generally viewed as juvenilia, the dicking around these guys did before they grew up into real artists. That would be a mistake, because songs like “18 Wheels of Love”, “Bulldozers and Dirt”, and “Zoloft” were wickedly clever and deeply revealing slices of Southern life that hold relatable truths for all listeners regardless of region. That said, it’s a refreshing surprise that the group’s latest album, The Big To-Do, finds Hood reconnecting with the macabre, with grim twists and booze-fueled mayhem, and with the dark corners of the American psyche.

Continue reading: Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Drive-By Truckers: The Big To-Do.