Hey All Y'all: This is something new I'll be posting on Friday's each week. Just a round up of all the DBT web related info I come across during the week. Hope you enjoy!
325 DBT posts in all. Today is the 213th DBT Week in Review post (and last).
Buckets of gratitude go to those who came out and shared in these recent shows with us and our friend, Sarah Jaffe. It’s been an important chapter in our collective creative lives. Seven months ago we confidently decided to streamline and shorten the path to our fans by self-releasing our music. It was the right time to simplify things, and hopefully strengthen our connection with those who continue to support us. Candidate Waltz has been our first step in that direction. Ten Centro-matic records in, this was our most encouraging and enjoyable tour yet. It has also been the best start sales and press-wise for any record that we’ve released. Thanks to all that have supported our cause, spent some time with our music, come out to the shows, purchased our records, and have therefore enabled us to keep doing this. Can’t wait ’til we see each other again."
"Folklorist Deborah Boykin interviews musician Patterson Hood about the Drive-By Truckers' (DBT) upcoming appearance at the W.C. Handy Festival sponsored by the Alabama Folklife Association. A native of Florence, Hood talks about the influence of the area on his songwriting and discusses growing up as a second generation musician in Muscle Shoals. He describes the evolution of the DBT and his long partnership with fellow Trucker Mike Cooley and gives his thoughts on the future of music in the Shoals."
"The album was cut it in two days with four of the singers recorded live with the band of Cropper, bassist David Hood, keyboardist Spooner Oldham, drummers Steve Ferrone and Steve Jordan and saxophonists Neal Sugarman and Jon Tiven."
Great band from the Shoals with 5 days left on their Kickstarter. They are close to their pledge amount. Keep in mind that they won't get any of the pledged cash unless they meet the stated goal.
Drop a few bucks today on Lauderdale. Totally worth it.
Another wave of great music coming from The Shoals. Pick in some coin to help Lauderdale release their sophmore effort. Including a rocking-ass song about a whore-house in Sheffield, AL, it promises to be a dang good'urn.
"Given the desolate location, terrible sight lines, and cavernous Thunder Dome-esque space of Terminal 5, it would have been worth it to buy tickets to the New Year’s Eve show just to get tickets to the Brooklyn Bowl show, and skip the Terminal 5 show entirely. Unless you really love the Drive-By Truckers. And given the crowd reaction at Brooklyn Bowl, it didn’t seem like many of the fans planned on skipping a Drive-By Truckers show. Ever."
"I could make the case (once again, to myself, because, once again, no one else would care to hear the argument) that the Drive-By Truckers managed to write my favorite AND second-favorite songs of the year, with “Birthday Boy” and “This F*cking Job”.
But I could be talked down from that position; those two songs might only be my third-favorite and fifth-favorite of the year. However, there is one thing of which I am positive: the Truckers wrote my favorite stanza of the year. From “Birthday Boy”, which is written from the perspective of a world-weary stripper:
“Got a girlfriend, don’t you, boy,
Nervous hands can’t lie,
Married men don’t ask how much,
Single ones ain’t buying.”
Even now, after something like 1,795 listens this year, the song gives me the chills; the Drive-By Truckers’ ability to cut to the heart of the human condition is one of the great musical revelations of the 21st century.
"EM: The best talent in Tuscaloosa is by far URI Horton. URI is unique and completely out of the box. He is sort of the godfather of the Tuscaloosa rap scene, but instead of being content with that, he has broadened his horizons and taken his craft to the stage with a band."
"Alternative nation luminaries R.E.M. will release Collapse Into Now, their new album, on March 8 (March 7 in the UK) via Warner Bros. On their website, they've already debuted the opening track, 'Discoverer'. More recently, the band shared a lyric video for their Eddie Vedder collaboration 'It Happened Today'; you can watch that below. And on the NPR website, you can now stream another song from the album, the scaled-back ballad 'Oh My Heart'."
Smart, tough, touching and raw, Drive-By Truckers’ The Big To-Do� is the perfect album for our Great Recession times. This Georgia sextet merge arena-rock, alt-country, and indie-rock into a heady brew for songs about strip-club encounters, bad jobs, murder and the casual heartbreaks that make up too much of everyday life."
"Musicians rely upon artists to represent them visually from album covers to concert posters. Estel Gallery is pleased to feature current artwork by seven artists whose work has defined musicians, such as Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Buddy & Julie Miller, the Drive-By Truckers, Willie Nelson, Pavement, the Dave Matthews Band, the Waco Brothers, and Hillbilly Casino."
In some ways, watching the CMA’s made me extremely optimistic about the future of country music, that future just wasn’t happening on TV. No, the CMAs provided a great reminder that while “country’s biggest night” was turning into a 60-car pileup in Nashville, there was real country music being made just a few hours to the south in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. “Thank God for Doc Dailey,” I told my wife as we turned away from the televised chaos and made our way to bed. I went to sleep knowing full well that on my morning commute seven hours later, I’d be blasting Victims, Enemies, and Old Friends, relishing in country music the way it was meant to be. If ever there was a time and a need for Doc Dailey and Magnolia Devil, it is now.
Wes' wine showcased on The Today Show (Kathy Lee has the taste-buds of a three year old... and is also a bitch... couldn't help myself with the last part).
"Label Design Virginia based artist Wes Freed, best known for his art on the CD covers for Drive By Truckers, created a custom piece for the Ghost Winery label."
"With their heady mix of fuzzed-up riff rock, rootsy acoustic shuffles and Crazy Horse-like excursions into the wild blue yonder, the Drive-By Truckers offer up an especially ambitious brand of southern rock. Favoring SGs and Gold Top Deluxes, frontman Patterson Hood generally tunes down a whole step in order to achieve the Truckers’ distinctive sound. The band’s sprawling 2001 opus, Southern Rock Opera, paid conscious tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allmans, and the Marshall Tucker Band."
"Drive-By Truckers is a musical family affair; not just because inspired leader singer/songwriter Patterson Hood is the son of extremely supportive Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section bass player David Hood, or the fact that he has been collaborating with fellow Shoals, North Alabama vocalist/guitarist Mike Cooley for decades. DBT is an extended filial force driven by a web of affection and responsibility within the band — which also includes another vivid vocalist and tunesmith, Jason Isbell, married to bass player Shannon Tucker; and longtime drummer Brad Morgan — and a deep connection to their fans."
"Individual artist apps aren't new...in 2009, some of the major labels rolled out apps for a few of their largest artists built largely around exclusive access to video content, mainly performance clips, promotional items, and behind-the-scenes peeks. But that simply is not enough; there has to a more unique offering to entice real fan engagement. Artists can only generate real revenue from apps on a long-term basis if the fan is getting something they deem valuable.
So, the battle to discover the new model continues on all fronts as the realization sinks in that the answer surely will be a combination of ideas (such as bundled subscriptions, cool artist apps, compelling fan experiences), not one magic solution. One thing won't be the answer, everything will be."
"The Drive-by Truckers have long made “People Who Died” a staple of their live shows. If you go back to 1999’s sadly out-of-print Alabama Ass Whuppin’, the early line-up of the band tears through the song with abandon. Muddling the verse order, and shuffling and adjusting lyrics as he goes, Patterson Hood’s delivery of the song is a howling maelstrom of grief. There are times where his vocals become muttered and incoherent, others where the pain is howled into the Plutonian shore. Imagining the narrator now in the small towns of the deep South, where friends are people you’ve known since you were born, not just the guy you met hustling on the street the other week, the deaths rack up in a much more serious way. As friends drop left and right, everything that seemed true is revealed in the harsh light of reality. The guitars, thick and raspy, convey something much more guttural and deeply troubling than the skittish chug of Carroll’s original. You can only take so much pain in a lifetime. Sometimes, it just can’t hurt any less. words/ j. neas"
ATLANTA, GA - Drivin' N' Cryin' will put out their first record in twelve years.Great American Bubble Factory will be released on September 29, 2009 on Vintage Earth Music with marketing and distribution provided by Thirty Tigers/RED. "This record is the perfect crescendo to a long twenty-plus year career of the band. I think we've found the true essence of what we started to build back in 1985," says Kevn Kinney.
Drivin' N' Cryin' originally started recording demos for this album on September 10, 2001. After 9/11 the band abandoned the sessions after deciding the time wasn't right for their stories of blue-collar optimism. They returned to Sonica Studios in Atlanta earlier this year where the band produced the album in collaboration with Anton Fier, who produced their 1987 album Whisper Tames the Lion and James Barber, their ex-manager-turned-producer.
This record moves from the "Midwestern Blues" to the Flannery O'Connor South of "This Town" to the industrial grind of "Detroit City" to the optimistic anthem (and Dictators cover) "I Stand Tall" to the genuine pining for home in "I See Georgia."
The current DNC line up is: Kevn Kinney (guitar & vocals), Tim Nielsen (bass, mandolin & backing vocals), Mac Carter (guitar), Dave V. Johnson (drums, percussion & backing vocals). The band will be on tour throughout the fall, tour dates will be announced soon.
"We are honored to share footage of Rockestra performing “Counting the Scars” at their Good Records performance in Dallas on Aug. 30th. Rockestra is a Rock n Roll Youth Orchestra that contains vocals, guitars, bass, drums, keys, synths, strings, horns, etc ages 12-17. Here’s a hearty salute to them and their lovely version of this song."
"I attempt to avoid comparisons to other bands, especially when it shows my age, but I have heard others compare Dexateens to bands like Son Volt, or others of the same strain. But I think it is more apropos to say many of us are just now catching on to Dexateens’ sound that is 110% their own making."
"The following series of photographs are from the first weekend in August. Lauderdale and Shotgun Lover shared bills at Speakeasy and the Alabama Music Box. We always have a blast playing shows and acting like pirates with those guys. I saw them last Friday night here at home with Doc Dailey and Magnolia Devil. It was a good show and a great reminder of my intentions to post these photos. This club circuit that we're on most weekends seems as if it's becoming the world's largest, most dysfunctional family. We're a handful of hard-working bands from all over the place who are perpetually crossing paths and closing down bars."
BOULDER,CO-The Emmitt-Nershi Band will release New Country Blues on September 29, 2009 on SCI Fidelity Records.Prior to the release of the album, a free download of the title track, New Country Blues will be available online.The bands website,emmittnershiband.com, also features information on contests and ordering the new album.Fans have a chance to win an autographed guitar, as well as autographed albums.
Throughout the new album, Drew Emmitt and Bill Nershi exemplify the forward-thinking modern bluegrass musician. As linchpins of two legendary jam-bands --Drew with Leftover Salmon, Bill with the String Cheese Incident--both men have traveled the world and played in front of hundreds of thousands of people.The Emmitt-Nershi Band is rounded out with Andy Thorn on banjo and Tyler Grant on bass and guitar.
The title track is available for free download at the link below:
"15th Street Dinah is a blog primarily about music coming to and coming from the Tuscaloosa, AL area. From time to time, we might veer off course...but for the most part, that's our thing.
We're named in honor of the great Dinah Washington, Tuscaloosa native and 'Queen of the Blues'."
"Only Jason Isbell could so eloquently explain the significance of and provide contemporary context for the Tennessee Valley Authority as an early arm of FDR’s New Deal while also singing about rounding second base for the first time in the same song."
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It pains me that I do not have the capability to write anything close to the following. An incredible piece of writing:
What most impacted me about Patterson’s artistic vision was that it helped me understand being a white man in the south. Pride and guilt expressed to the sound of Crazy Horse with a few other guys sitting in. There is an apology that many southerners have prepared for the world. It’s an explanation to outsiders about how this place isn’t at all what they think it is, and if it is, then it has nothing to do with them. And then there is the tough, conservative old southerner types with their hands clenched to the stars and bars and a dedication so dear to the past that they’d probably tell you they’d ride a horse to work if somebody else didn’t have a problem with it. And if the past was that good, we probably should all ride horses and shit in the woods. Those rights are, after all, somewhat protected. And then there is that person, much like a Patterson Hood, who is self-aware as an individual and clever as an artist. His take on being born here shrugs the shame and guilt away, embraces the people and the will that has endured unwarranted ridicule and deserved blame, and understands that, either way, this is who I am. I think that much of his brilliance is in the personal concern for his geographical place in the world and the ability to treat it with an objective and educated, yet loving and compassionate hand. It is a painterly stroke that has, finally, made a musical connection from my father’s south to mine.
"In March 1999, George Jones slammed his SUV into a bridge abutment, and Drive-By Truckers got a song out of it. Jones wasn't reeling from alcohol, nor was he being chased by an angry ex, nor did any of the hard-living country tropes play into the crash. Instead, he was simply talking on his cell phone to his daughter. He was in critical condition but recovered eventually. Which is fortunate, because a legend like Jones shouldn't go out that way. Part joking and part shaming, the Truckers' 'George Jones Talkin' Cell Phone Blues' acts as a biopic of sorts, framing a consideration of his life and legacy with details from the crash. 'He almost stopped loving her today,' Hood sings, before admonishing the legend: 'Better leave that cell phone alone.'"
"In the wake of the Drive-By Truckers’ split with New West Records this past spring, it’s hardly a surprise that the label is churning out whatever previously unreleased DBT-related material they can scrounge up. And after all, who can blame ‘em? Since picking up the Alabama-bred, Georgia-based band in 2003, the Drive-By Truckers have gone on to become one of, if not the most popular band on the label’s roster, and with a large fan base built solely from years of extensive touring, the demand for new product is definitely there."
"If ever a band seemed to demand a full bio documentary, shedding light on member comings and going, musical evolution, et cetera, it’s the Drive-By Truckers, but pending that ever happening, we get performance DVD"
"Police are reviewing the death of Rolling Stone Brian Jones – 40 years after his body was found at the bottom of a swimming pool.
The dramatic move by Sussex Police follows new evidence unearthed by The Mail on Sunday about the mysterious death of the rock legend which suggests he was murdered by his minder"
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Via Peter Grumbine's Twitter feed.
I'm not all that familiar with Frank Turner. But when Brit musician crosses the pond and decides to do a show in someones basement, he's way OK in my book. Doesn't this look like a damn fine time?
"Barry Beckett, keyboard player and founding member of the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, died during the night at his home in Hendersonville, Tenn.
Known affectionately as “The Swampers,” Beckett, along with guitarist Jimmy Johnson, bassist David Hood and drummer Roger Hawkins, performed with a variety of artists including Bob Seger, The Staple Singers and Paul Simon.
He was 66-years-old, said his close friend and former assistant, Dick Cooper. He had suffered from several ailments."
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Patterson Hood/DBT
Booker T & the DBTs set from Bonnaroo this weekend will be broadcasted at AT&T Blueroom on Sunday June 14th at 3:30pm. If you cant make it to Bonnaroo this year be sure to check out their performance via the AT&T Blueroom
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New blog post from Patterson with new DBT tour dates! Also, don't forget to pre-order Murdering Oscar!
"NEW DBT TOURDATES just announced (more coming soon!): Thu Jul 23 - Florence, AL - SHOALS THEATRE Fri Jul 24 - Florence, AL - SHOALS THEATRE Thu Aug 13 - Sun Valley, ID - ELKHORN SPRINGS RESORT Thu Aug 20 - Macon, GA - COX CAPITAL THEATRE Fri Aug 21 - Myrtle Beach, SC - HOUSE OF BLUES"
"Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers is set to release his sophomore solo album called Murdering Oscar on June23rd. Killers and Stars, his solo debut, was an acoustic album that sounded like it was recorded in a bathroom. The lo-fi treatment served the album well. It’s a depressing affair that was recorded at a time when Patterson was going through some tough shit. I was expecting similar slow, acoustic sounds on Murdering Oscar, but that is not what greeted me when I pressed play.
Big, ominous guitar riffs roll in like thunderheads when the title track opens things up. You immediately feel the song’s intensity before a grizzled word is uttered from Patterson’s southern jowls. Then the tale of kill or be killed begins to unfold: “I killed Oscar/Shot him in the head/Put the gun in his mouth/ Watched his brains fly out.” Um, okay. Let me start that song over knowing what I know now. And proceed."
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Spin gives Murdering 3 1/2 stars. They kinda phoned in the review, though, as they only address one song and try to apply it to the entire album.
And they used the term 'Southern Rock'. Minus 25 points for that one.
Lots of 'light' on Murdering, in my opinion. It's hard to listen to a more joyful song than 'I Understand Now' (One of my favorite Patterson songs of all time).
"Although most of the songs on Patterson Hood's second solo album predate the existence of Drive-By Truckers, they'd easily fit on any of his band's records -- same low-life characters, busted dreams, and black humor, rendered in solidly gothic Southern rock. The body count starts on the title track, with Hood sounding both regretful and turned on as he howls, 'I killed Oscar and I forgave me.' Then he attempts to claim self-defense. Hood's unreliable narrator is always lookin' for forgiveness in all the wrong places, even if he's the only one listening to his confession."
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Congrats to Creigh who beat Terry Mcs sorry ass and who, turns out, is a fan of the Drive-By Truckers.
"Deeds did seem a little stunned when he spoke to supporters in Charlottesville. 'No one could have imagined what we've accomplished here in the commonwealth of Virginia tonight,' he said. And though the music playing as he walked onstage was Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing,' Deeds actually spent a fair amount of time on his Twitter feed talking about what other tunes he was listening to, throughout the campaign. A scroll through the feed shows his favorites — Drive by Truckers, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Cat Power and others — popping up more often than anything having to do with politics. If aides don't wrest control of his account away from him to use the feed for more conventional messaging, it should be fun to read throughout the fall."
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'Daddy Learned to Fly' from the upcoming, new DBT album out in 2010.
If this don't get the nips taunt for the new, new record (3 DBT/Patterson albums are coming out before the new, new one) then you ain't suckin' in air right.
It's certainly great to be alive in TruckerLand these days.
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A band from Spain covering 'Where the Devil Don't Stay'
And then they go and cover Marah.
Spaniards: Great taste in pork and music:
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Will Johnson/Centro-Matic
I missed this blog written by Will Johnson on the death of Jay Bennett.
"Jay, Edward, Paul, Scott and I all got together for our first rehearsal in Jay’s Arlington Heights basement on Sunday, June 23, 2002. Some of us were just meeting for the first time, and others of us had long running friendships. The syrupy Chicago summer afternoons had well arrived, and we only had a couple of days to get ready for the first trek in support of “The Palace at 4am”. The room was a sweatbox, a mesmirizing musical laboratory of guitars, keyboards, amplifiers and curiosities."
"CATHLAMET, Wash. — Nirvana's former bassist is running for clerk of a rural county to protest Washington state's method of letting candidates name their own party affiliation."
