Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance by Patterson Hood

My affinity for The Drive By Truckers is well known. Therefore when I tell you that this solo record by lead singer Patterson Hood is wonderful you will not be surprised. I accept that I find many albums that I find worth raving about as excellent.

What is most interesting is the while 95 percent of new music is schlock, the five percent that is good is, in some cases, very good. With pop radio now an abyss of rap and tween acts one does have to work a little bit to find music worth hearing.

Fortunately one can find their way. Rolling Stone and NPR frequently give pre release streaming of recordings. In fact this album by Hood is currently being streamed by Rolling Stone.


The album is not a big stretch for Hood, not far from the Drive By persona, If anything, perhaps the music is a little softer, there are none of the loud, outlandish, drinking, bad boy, songs one often finds on a Drive By album. I do like those songs, Let There Be Rock is a scorcher. Still I think most of the fans of the Truckers would admit that it is the talk songs and the songs like Angels and Fuselage that keep us coming back. With this in mind Patterson Hood delivers in spades on this album.

" She's so sweet, she rots my teeth, every time I kiss her" is a memorable line from Better Off Without. That my friends is a pretty damn good line, not one you are going to hear on your hit radio station. The song is brilliant.

For those of us who put Three Alabama Icons as one of the highlights of Southern Rock Opera then another talk song is welcome. ( untold pretties ) is Hood talking about his reminiscences of growing up in Northern Alabama, the loss of his grandfather, the plan unknown even to the the protagonist of making an escape ending with the line " You cannot only carry Hell around so long before it's a drag." Again not a cookie cutter lyric. For those of us old enough to remember when REM was on top of the world Hood's voice recalls the talk song Belong they recorded in the nineties.

After the Damage is a pretty song in which he bemoans his lover leaving him, " after the baggage and babies." Some pretty strong backing vocals from Kelly Hogan highlight this song.

The title song is one you need to listen to on a Saturday afternoon before you start drinking or a Sunday morning after you have. With his sing drawl Patterson Hood can tell a story like few people in music. Hood tells how the " ghosts' in his old families house " are a comfort to him." We all have ghosts.

You are not going to hear a single from Patterson Hood but perhaps the most accessible song on the record is Come Back Little Star. Again featuring Hogan on backup vocals, Hood talks to a past lady friend " you always had a drink in your hand but your liver ain't what it used to be." Begging her to come back and take him with her and telling ' that the dreams we made leave him lying here lonely."

All in all this is as strong an album as you will hear this year. The singer's voice is unique, a cross between a drawl and a croak. He would get tossed off Idol for sure which goes to show that singing is about so much more than voice, something those shows often miss.

Listen. Learn. Love. Patterson Hood delivers a home run.

George Jones Talkin' Cell Phone Blues by The Drive By Truckers

My appreciation for The Drive By Truckers is well documented. Still this song deserves special attention. Appearing on a rareties disc it might not be a song even fans of the band are familiar with but it should be.

Modeled after the talking blues songs of the folk era from the likes of Guthrie and Dylan the song laments the car crash of Country legend George Jones, who was, as the song says, talking on his cell phone at the time of the crash.

With wry, yet heartfelt lyrics, Patterson Hood tells Jones " if you don't change your ways my friend, you'll be singing with Tammy ( Wynette) again." Brilliant lyrics. How many of us have been told to change our ways before it's too late. Let us hope George listens to the message, we need his voice around as long as we can.

Find this on Spotify. It is a great song.

Let There Be Rock by The Drive By Truckers

I have to admit it. I cannot get enough of this band. They are awesome. This song off the amazing double album Southern Rock Opera continues the bands obsession with the ghosts of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Telling us about how he had tickets for a show on the Survivors tour, the tour that did not finish due to the plane crash and then taking us on a tour of shows he did see such as Ozzy Osbourne and Bon Scott and AC/DC Patterson Hood and the boys tell us a great story and a great song.

My guess is that the Drive By's are an acquired taste. That is you love them or you just do not get it. I get it. You should try to as well. Talent and trueness to one's vision of what kind of music you want to make should be rewarded.

I hear the songs of this band and when my daughter gets in the vehicle I tell her she cannot switch the channel right now. She sighs and rolls her eyes but then looks at the readout on the screem, if she sees Drive By Truckers she knows it is no use argeuing. The Disney Radio channel will have to wait.

This is a great band.

Southern Rock Opera by The Drive By Truckers

This was the album that Patterson Hood and the boys were formed to make. Even as the first albums were recorded the band was writing songs for this album and setting them aside for the day when the Opera could be recorded.

This double album is thematically strong. It is a Southern Rock thing. Cliches are present. So is George Wallace, Alabama and the ever present ghost and story of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Does it work. My guess is that it depends on your outlook. I think this is a fantastic album. Some of these songs are very very good. A few go off the rails into just a little too much redneck even for me but when this album is good it is very good.

Some of the tracks of note include 72 ( This Highways Mean ), Zip City, Let There Be Rock and Women Without Whiskey.

The ghost of Skynyrd walks through Let There Be Rock, Cassie's Brother, Life In the Factory and the telling Angels and Fuselage.

Songs such as Wallace, Birmingham, The Southern Thing and Three Great Alabama Icons visit the political legacy of the sixties and seventies and how that affected young folks growing up in that era.

Shut Up and Get on the Plane is fun and one can hear the debt that The Hold Steady owe for their song Sequestered in Memphis. Music is something where one can always hear the refernces.

Writing this I realized I was not enthusiastic enough. This is a great album. The band ran out of money when recording their master work and took donations from fans, friends and family. We owe them all a debt.

This is a great album. This is a tight band. Listen today, Listen Tomorrow, Listen Often

The Drive By Truckers

I like to think that I keep up with music. I am sure I do. I have heard about The Drive By Truckers for years. Still, there is only so much music to hear, if radio does not play them. Even WKIT, Stephen King's station ( he is a big fan of theirs ) does not play them.

Another great reason to endorse Spotify is that it is a new version of radio. Now on Facebook your friends can tell you what they listen to and you can try it out. I do not Facebook and have no plans too. I do endorse Spotify however.

The Drive By Truckers are a great band. Much has been made about them being a party band. They are. They are also much more than that. Some of their songs are as affecting as anything I have heard.

Immersed in their Southern culture they do not hide their roots, they stand in them with firmly planted feet. Yet this is not just redneck music. They can do that bit, but much of their music is deeper than this, though the references to Mustangs do seem to add up.

I am in no way an expert, having just found them, I am listening to songs here and there. Thus far songs such as Self Destructive Zones, Everyone Needs Love, Outfit and Three Alabama Icons serve as a pretty strong indication of how good their music is. It is literate and well bred.

Perhaps Three Alabama Icons best tells the story of the bipolar nature of Southern culture. Perhaps it tells the nature of not only the South but all of us.