Drive-By Truckers Album: “Dirty South”

Pardon me if I don't keep the adjectives tucked away during this review, but "The Dirty South" deserves some lofty platitudes. The Drive-By Truckers have always embraced---even wallowed---in the traditions, stories, myths, and hallucinations that fuel lore about the South. This rich mélange merits a wide audience, and no doubt will---or should--- swell the numbers of Drive-By Truckers' fans.

Familiar themes of moonshine, cards, John Henry, love, stock car racing, and pride are given fresh treatments. The wonderful Buford Stick presents the flip side of Buford Pusser's legend (Buford is the bad guy here); The Sands of Iwo Jima contrasts the portrayal of reality with the actual reality of WWII; Danko/Manuel offers a bittersweet tribute to the dead members of the Band.

Drive-By Truckers rev up their multiple guitar attack to good effect but the crunching riffs in tracks such as Where the Devil Don't Stay and Daddy's Cup, but they invoke dread and fear through layers of sound in tracks like Tornadoes and Puttin' People on the Moon.

It's a great thing when the lyrics actually mean something, and the depth and allusion here show these folks do their homework. The biting irony of a reference like "I never saw John Wayne on the sands of Iwo Jimo" or to Elvis like "Making money you can't spend ain't what being dead's about" causes one to stop and think.

Throw in some wonderful artwork, well-crafted packing, and 70-plus minutes of riveting songs and, well, you have to go with 5 stars for this effort.

Just to add my two cents on where this ranks among their three masterpieces, this one gets 4.75 stars. Decoration Day got the full five and Southern Rock Opera gets about 4.4. So it's a slight comedown from Decoration Day but not much.

As mentioned in other reviews, the amazing thing about this band is the triple threat, both in terms of songwriting and guitar playing. Patterson Hood is still my favorite songwriter of the three and he does his typical great job. Nothing quite as great as "Sink Hole" or "My Sweet Annette" from DD but "Tornadoes," "Sands of Iwo Jima," "Lookout Mountain" and especially "Putting People on the Moon" are at his typical lofty level. Isbell hits a home run on "Danko/Manuel" and I'd say a triple on "Never Gonna Change."

But the man this time is Cooley. "Where the Devil Don't Stay" is an awesome and menacing song that kind of sums up exactly what southern rock should sound like. "Daddy's Cup" is my pick for the best song on the album. Kind of like Isbell's "Outfit" on DD, the song threatens to be corny but stays on the right side of the line and will continue to choke you up even after you've heard it 25 times. "Cottonseed" is the third Cooley gem. I just caught these guys live and Cooley's persona, not nearly as warm and gregarious as Hood or even Isbell, really fits with the moody menace of his best songs.

For me, what keeps this one from matching Decoration Day are three songs (one by each writer, in fact) that aren't quite filler but don't scream "classic" the way every other song does: "The Day John Henry Died," "Carl Perkins' Cadillac" and "The Buford Stick."

As for whether they are the best Southern Rock band of all time, my answer is no. They are number two behind the Allman Brothers. But I believe that they have left Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker and all the other boogie bands in the dust. None of those bands can boast the gripping songwriting and the balanced attack of DBT and DBT rocks at least as hard as they do.

Are they the best band working today? I couldnt say. Certainly it would be tough to rank them ahead of bands like Wilco and Modest Mouse but really those bands and many like them are introspective and indie-ish in a way that the DBT clearly are not. I know of know better band who's making arena-type rock than DBT. Also, just think of the bands mentioned above. If they were renamed Jeff Tweedy and Isaac Brock tomorrow, would anything really change? On the other hand, DBT is a band in the true sense of the word and would suffer greatly with the loss of any of its songwriters.

Finally, let me add my recommendation to catch them live at any cost. I saw them in NYC on January 1. Later the same day that they rang in the New Year with a 1 am show, they played for 3 hours and 40 minutes, one of the best club shows I have ever seen. The well-chosen covers (Ain't Talkin' Bout Love, People Who Died) fit well with all of this album and some great selections from their back catalog. Don't miss this band.

I don't know where to begin to even describe the power of this album. The opening track, Cooley's "Where the Devil Don't Stay", is a fist-poundin, foot-stompin song that is raw energy when you hear it live. As usual, these songs are eerily reminiscent of so many things that go down here in the South, you'd swear they were singing about your own small town in the middle of the woods. Patterson's voice hits you with emotion and his lyrics often tear at your soul, but there's always the rock. Always the rock. Drive-by Truckers are one the greatest bands out there, and if you've never heard them, give them a chance, you will NOT be sorry.

This band gets better with every new release. A combination of awesome, uncompromising rock and slower, mournful tunes, The Dirty South is simply great. Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley still drive the band on standout cuts like Where the Devil Don't Stay, Tornadoes, Carl Perkins' Cadillac, and Lookout Mountain, but Jason Isbell continues to take on a more prominent role with two of the best (and quietest) songs, Danko/Manuel, and Goddamn Lonely Love. As always, the songwriting takes on a Southern flavor that is gritty, humorous, dangerous, and whiskey-soaked. The chops that the band have honed on the road from endless touring - and they're the best live show around, take my word - is rewarded here.

The Dirty South just kicks. As Patterson Hood says, "Turn it up to 10 and rip off the knob."

No one explains the misunderstood, misrepresented South as well as the Drive-By Truckers. Time after time, album after album, these fellas deconstruct the myths surrounding Southern life (see Decoration Day and Southern Rock Opera for that theme), and The Dirty South is no exception. Again the 'Truckers rock, with older songs like 'Lookout Mountain,' 'Tornadoes,' and 'The Day John Henry Died' coupled with excellent new material, such as 'Never Gonna Change,' 'Carl Perkins' Cadillac,' 'Goddamn Lonely Love,' and the Alabama/Walking Tall suite. This is a must-have for any fans of the Skynryd mold and for those seeking a precise explanation of the American South. Enjoy.