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