Twenty years into their never-ending road trip, Drive-By Truckers have taken a pit stop in the political arena to let everyone know just what it means to be an American band.
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“I think it’s a record about right now,” says co-founding vocalist and guitarist Patterson Hood. “It’s about everything that is going on in the country, socially, politically, topically — where we are at as a people. It’s an album of that and about that.”
Whereas previous Truckers’ albums made use of historical narrative devices to conceal the direct political consequences of their work, this new release makes no such pretensions. Hood and his Southern rock band are through mincing words when it comes to the issues at hand.
“The new record pretty much just lays it straight out there,” says Hood. “As white Southern males, we demographically look like the ultimate Trump vote. But we are proud to be part of the vocal opposition.”
On “American Band,” released on Sept. 30, Hood and co-founder Mike Cooley have written a contemporary collection of songs to cast light on the current events tearing the country apart.
“The songs ask questions about recent spats of violence in our country,” he explains. “One deals with Trayvon Martin and Ferguson, Mo., and some of those issues. Then Cooley wrote one about an immigrant who was murdered back in the 1930s down in Texas. He was Mexican and therefore the Texan who shot him wasn’t in anyway prosecuted. He grew up to become the leader of the NRA [National Rifle Association] in the 1970s. We wrote one about a school shooting that occurred in Southern Oregon. And there’s another song I wrote the night Robin Williams died, dealing with depression. It’s all very topical.”
For Hood, Cooley and the rest of the Truckers, writing and playing songs is how they earn a living, but they’ve always chosen to do it in way that’s true to themselves.
“My job is just the write the best song I can and be true to what I wrote,” he says. “I’m always trying to get better. I’m always trying to write that thing I’ve never written before. But whoever knows what people are going to like? We’re the band that had our first real success with a double LP, “Southern Rock Opera,” about growing up in the South after civil rights and dealing with the fall of arena rock. Anyone looking from outside would of thought it was a stupid idea for a record, but it put us on the map. We’ve always kind of done things differently.”
“American Band” was recorded on analog tape at Nashville’s legendary Sound Emporium Studios in only six days.
“We cut it live on the floor,” says Hood. “There’s a lot of first takes and second takes on the record. It’s a really nice studio with an eclectic history. They have such cool old analog gear. We love the way it sounds. It’s so much warmer. Digital can get crispy real easy if you’re not careful.”
In discussing the 20-year anniversary, Hood explained how the Truckers originated as a solo project before it eventually became a band.
“It’s crazy hard to believe,” he says. “I booked a day of studio time with these five songs I wanted to record. I had some people wanted to play on them. Some of them I’d never met. I didn’t want it to be a solo record, so I called it Drive-By Truckers. I was like, ‘Y’all wanna play sometime?’ In the back of my mind I’m thinking, Ha ha, my evil scheme. I’m gonna lure people to their doom. But more and more people liked it and years later here we are.”
Hood and the band plan to tour most of the next year to promote the new album. After a number of personnel changes over the years, Hood believes Truckers have finally settled into the rhythm of a successful musical career.
“We have long history with a lot of change and some turmoil at times, but it’s been pretty stable for about five years now,” he says. “At the beginning, a lot of people weren’t sure if they wanted to leave for three months with a bunch of crazy drunken redheads. That weeded out some people pretty early. But we’re not too wild anymore. We’re all older and have families, so we can’t really do it like we used to. We laugh about the old days, but I don’t really miss it too much. We do most of our hell-raising on stage now.”
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