Drive-By Truckers Album: “Decoration Day”

Brash and brilliant as Decoration Day is, Drive By Truckers sound on it like a band in transition. When they rock, hard and often, their sound comes straight from the muscle and rowdy tradition of the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the mostly overlooked Georgia Satellites. Hell No, I Ain't Happy is the template and while it is a great sing-a-long bar line of resentment, it's also probably the weakest of the CD's very generous fifteen cuts.

Decoration Day excels because where the Truckers were previously mostly a vehicle for front man Patterson Hood, they now showcase two more major writing talents, Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell. With their contributions and Hood's own better compositions, it's as if the Truckers have mainlined some William Faulkner and Flannery O'Conner, put a whole new true twist on all those tired Southern traditions and cliches. So we get Hood's sympathetic tale of incest, The Deeper In ("..but you took to his jawline and his long sandy hair. How he made you feel like none of the others."), Cooley's rocking Marry Me ("rock and roll means well but it can't help telling young boys lies" or "there's a fool on every corner, on every street, in everyone/and I'd rather be your fool nowhere than go somewhere and be no one's"), Isbell's Outfit (a father's lesson in pride to a son), back to back songs of survivor anger at suicides (When the Pin Hits the Shell and Do It Yourself) and, finally, the spare acoustical Loaded Gun in the Closet. In each of these songs and several others, the scenes and characters are so quirkily and sharply drawn that you feel them alive right beside you.

An even more interesting question than the accomplishment of Decoration Day is what happens next for the band. If the creative egos can co-exist and not implode in their competition, Drive By Truckers are likely to become the standard by which all future hard-rocking Southern bands will be judged.

Aside -- if you're impressed, as I clearly am, see the Drive By Truckers live. They clearly inherit the Stones and James Brown crowns of hardest working band in show business. They, with their female bassist a recent addition, played nearly three hours at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle where I saw them and it was some of the best twelve bucks I'd ever spent. Not least because of their Play It All Night tribute to Warren Zevon -- "play that dead man's song/Turn the speakers up full blast, Play it all night long." They did, they did, and they damn near did.

...the best rock band in America today. Hear me now and believe me later: Brilliant on record, and utterly phenomenal live, the DBT's have revived the art of rock (Southern and otherwise), with heart, soul, humor, intelligence, and venom. The first band to have truly awed me in a very long time. Having started out with "Decoration Day", I've been working my way through their back catalog, and the more I hear the more hooked I become. They just can't seem to do any wrong. And the forthcoming "The Dirty South", which I've heard in its entirety, finds the band continuing along the same stellar path. Whatever preconceived notions you might have about "Southern Rock", do yourself a favor and forget about them. Buy every one of their records, and see them live. It will change your life. Trust me.

After reading some of the negative "reviews" I felt I had to write one of my own. No, it's not earth-shakingly innovative but neither were the Rolling Stones (thanks Muddy Waters), not much music is truly innovative. Unless you're Bill Monroe, Kraftwerk, or a small handful of others, all music is derivative. When I listen to this I hear Steve Earle, The Replacements, The Stones and even a little Outlaws in a riff or two. And their ain't nothing wrong with that.

This CD has fine lyrics, a variety of styles. I described this CD to a friend this way. If Gram Parsons is Country-Rock, this CD is Rock-Country.

The comment about BMG giving it away...that's how I got mine and it turned me into a fan...mission accomplished. I don't know the motivation for BMG giving it away (they've done it with others), nor if it had anything to do with low sales, but let's not forget out there that Sales hardly equate with quality. This is a record buying public that fills the livingrooms of Fred Durst and Britney Spears with Platinum albums. 'Nuff said.

If you like Rock-n-Roll, if you like Country, if you like good music...buy this CD.

I had heard of DBT for several years, especially from the highly complimentary reviews of Southern Rock Opera. With the release of Decoration Day I was finally moved to give them a listen, so I picked up this cd without ever having heard the group.

From the opening lines of the first track I was sold. More than mere rockers, DBT are storytellers, with their songs covering a wide spectrum. From the fantastic song "Outfit", which was inspired by advice given Jason Isbell by his Father...to the contrasting views of Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood regarding the suicide of a mutual friend (the songs "When the Pin Hits the Shell" and "Do It Yourself", respectively) Decoration Day illustrates the breadth of this group's songwriting talent. The title cut is especially moving to me. Describing a feud between two families, this song is so real, so...well...Southern, that it still draws me into the story every time I listen to it.

This is what Southern Rock *should* be! This is where being rough and rowdy meets intelligence and passion, and the DBT give us music that is driving, sincere and real. This is heart and soul, and sweat and blood.

I have only mentioned a few of the killer songs you'll find on this cd. Go ahead, even if you haven't heard the Drive-By Truckers take the chance! I did...and it was well worth the risk!!!

I had never heard of DBT until i saw them on an Amazon list of their latest cd The Dirty South being one of the top cds of 2004. I like southern rock, so i went out and got The Dirty South and this cd without hearing one cut from it or even knowing what they sounded like. I really enjoyed this cd a lot, though a few of the cuts were slight filler. Otherwise, if you took the sounds of Tom Petty, Steve Earle, The Eagles, Lynard Skynard, Allman Brothers, Neil Young, even a bit of 70s Rolling Stones and mixed it in a blender you would have the general sound and feel of DBT.The lyrics are included and are great. This is a must-have cd for fans of southern rock and bar band rock. I'm surprised that they are not more popular. They are definitely worth a listen. Nice to see there are groups out there making this kind of music still.