Largehearted Boy, who awes me with the quality and amount of content he produces on his blog... seriously, he makes me ashamed to even call myself a blogger.... has come up with a great series of artists interviewing other artist.
In the latest edition DBT cover artist and all around badass Wes Freed Interviews writer Dallas Hudgens with the Dixie Butcher, Jyl Freed chipping in a question or two.
Jyl turned me on to Dallas earlier this year and connected Dallas and I via email. Dallas was kind enough to send me a signed copy of his book Drive Like Hell and I loved it. Really, really loved it.
"For the first time ever, with the blessing of The Drive-by Truckers, Wes is going to sell a couple of pieces of original artwork that The Drive-by Truckers made official use of. We'll be selling them through the website, first come, first served. "
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Warm in the Wake is opening up for DBT tonight and tomorrow night.
If you've recently broken a toe or two then you SHOULD NOT listen to this band. Yer metatarsal malady will only be worsen by the foot flapping tunes produced by this Decatur, Georgia based band.
I dig it.
A base of Beatles, a dash of Deathcab, cup of Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, sprinkle on some Flaming Lips.... some of the boys are from Alabama.... currently making music in Georgia (and we know how good that combo is).
Get to the show early and be sure to check out Warm in the Wake opening for DBT.
Their MySpace page has a free download of their song American Prehistoric
Jay-Z, Kanye, none of the Rap Moguls can compare with Dre. Two of the greatest rap albums ever (Chronic and 2000... which came out a decade apart) are Dres.
Starting off today I want to highlight an author out of Virginia that goes by the name Dallas Hudgens. Dallas is a big DBT fan (thus he must be cool as shit) and Southern Rock Opera actually inspired the completetion of Dallas' book titled Drive Like Hell.
I've got it on good authority that Mr. Mike Cooley gives Drive Like Hell two very BIG thumbs up.... Loved the book, actually. If a master story teller a la Cooley loved DLH then it must be gooder than good.
Mrs. Jyl Freed (Hey Jyl!) turned me onto Dallas and DLH through her blog and then with a subsequent email. Here's what the Dixie Butcher had to say about Dallas' reading last night in Richmond:
Our writer buddy & author of the best work of fiction we've read in years ( Drive Like Hell ), Dallas Hudgens, will be doing a reading in Richmond, VA, on Thursday, February 22, 2007. Him and a few other edgy authors will be discussing sex. Maybe. I might have just said that so you'd be more inclined to come out. But it could be true.
Let's take a look at what's in store:
Sixteen-year-old Luke Fulmer gets an education in misbehaving in Hudgens's raucous, Southern-fried bildungsroman. Luke hasn't had the greatest role models: his gorgeous mom, Claudia, needs her soaps like a wino needs his Thunderbird; his deadbeat dad, Lyndell, gets Luke involved in a B and E within 24 hours of seeing him for the first time in a decade; and his older brother, Nick, has done time twice for dealing drugs. It's Georgia in 1979, where Luke steals his brother's nickel bags for pocket money and his neighbor's car for errands—that is, until he smashes it into a tree. He loses his license, is forced to take a job as a busboy at the Holiday Inn, and has to move in with his brother—after all, isn't Nick walking the straight-and-narrow these days? Not hardly: he may have a landscaping business, a decent golf game and a band, Puss N' Booze, but he's also got a nice cocaine trade. Then Luke falls for a kleptomaniac, Nick lands in jail, and Luke has to play pick-up man in a drug drop. Hudgens's sharp dialogue sparkles throughout, and the cat-and-mouse confrontations between Luke, Nick and the local lawmen are particularly funny. Hudgens's takes on car racing, Claudia's dating, Luke's first love and Nick's attempts to teach Luke his dubious keys to success also shine in this shaggy but thoroughly enjoyable debut.
Uhhhh, this book could be a DBT album. Here's another blurb:
"Dallas Hudgens has done something I always thought was impossible: He's written the Great American Redneck Novel, a kind of bildungsroman of the urban South, complete with racing, wrestling, and lots and lots of drinking and smoking. In doing so, he has created a cast of characters so real to me I thought one of them was going to steal my car. This is a sharp, violent, hilarious, and endearing book. Like its narrator, the young Luke, it doesn't know how good it is."
-- Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish
Check out the reviews on Amazon and while you're at it order yourself a copy or get your butt to your locally owned and operated bookstore this weekend and buy a copy there. I'll have mine in hand on Monday.
Dallas also has a great group blog called Drive Like Hell. Music and literature and all sorts of good stuff. I've given the blog a link on AAW, too.
I've said it once and I'll say it again. DBT isn't just DBT. DBT is a collective of musicians (Drams, Centro-Matic, Dexateens, to name a few) artists (Wes Freed, to name the best) writers (Dallas Hudgens, to name a newbie) filmakers (Ray McKinnon, to name one that will have a new film out shortly) that produce high quality art that is much deserving of our support and dollars.
I know where my money goes when I support these folks.
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While we're on the subject of racing cars, Jyl and Wes Freed sent me some pictures Wes took of the DBT Jack Daniels NASCAR that ran either last year of the year before.... My CRS (can't remember shit) has kicked in....
Take a look at this fine automobile:
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The first 'Dirt Underneath' shows have been posted along with some additional solo shows for Jason as he tours with Son Volt. Check them out here.
Been hibernating since I got off the ship and returned from Miami. The cruise was fun from the standpoint of watching Ava run around that "Big boat" and Miami was bittersweet, as we had a funeral to attend, but also we made it to the zoo and had a fun night of driving around South Beach in convertible and looking at Art Deco District, which might be my wife's heaven on earth.
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I mentiond in last week's DBT WIR that I got behind a car in downtown San Francisco with a DBT bumper sticker.
Well this week, I was grousing around the local Safeway Supermarket sporting a nifty hangover and wearing my DBT hat. I was headed to the check out counter after picking up my final grocery (that would have been beer) when I pass two college lads. As I pass them one whispers to the other, "Hey, that guy has a Drive-by Truckers hat on". I turned and smiled because that's about all the gas I had in my tank.
Oh how the gospel is spreading.....
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Check out this DBT thread on a Pearl Jam board. These DBT threads on other band's posting boards are always great reads. Here is the first post but the thread runs current:
"I just got back from what might be the greatest rock concert I have ever seen. The band was the drive by truckers, a hard-rock group from alabama that, although I hate to say it, outpreformed Pearl Jam. I walked into the venue, a small club made from a former movie theater, without having heard a note of their music. These guys blew me away. They came on at 11:00 and played till 2:30. They somehow managed to combine the energy of pearl jam, the length and theatrics of Bruce Springsteen circa 1978, and the music of Lynrd Skynrd, Neil Young circa 'Rust Never Sleeps' or 'Ragged Glory' and the Ramones. An amazing performance. GO SEE THEM NOW."
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Give it up for a YouTube hottie named Felicity who recorded herself playing Goddamn Lonely Love. (though I find it pretty hard that ol Felicity is Goddamn Lonely)
Kick ass, Felicity!
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The Drams
Do The Drams have some committed fans or what? What the hell, you DBT procreators? Why no baby EZB? Why no baby Stroker Ace? Damn procreating slackers....
Well the twins have arrived! Two baby girls born Superbowl Sunday, 2:21 & 2:22 am. Now we can go to any smoke filled Dram venue we want, if we can find a babysitter.
She named one Stacy after her deceased mother and I got to name the other. I didn't want to do ryhmies but wanted to stick to the boy/girl name theme. Brentina and Chadette were definite no gos. I thought hard about Toni. But when I saw the Drams cover the replacements video my mind was made up. Jess in a dress makes a fine girl. So, belive it or not our little Jessica Lynn is named after a Dram.
Then, just as they snapped the newborn photo at the hospital, she held up a little one finger salute to herself. Just precious!
Check out the Dexateens' video for Neil Armstrong. I questioned at first whether it was a video for the song or somebody just videod a random weekend in Alabama. I mean, pulling an old piano out of a delapidated house and shooting it with a gun, then attacking it with a sledge hammer, then setting it on fire? Hell, that's a normal Saturday night from where I come from.
Great song!
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Sky Bucket Records has a round up of press from the new album. Give the site a look for additional info.
"MUSCLE SHOALS -- It really never dawned on a teenage Bobby Denton that history was being made when he recorded 'A Fallen Star' 50 years ago this month.
'We didn't realize we were doing anything,' Denton said.
Denton, today a state senator representing the Shoals, was a senior at Cherokee High School at the time and had made a name for himself as a local singer."
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Hat tip to Jenn B. for turning me onto Amy Winehouse. "They tried to make me go to rehab and I said 'No, no, no'" :
"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Disgraced pop duo Milli Vanilli will soon get a movie made about their less-than-spectacular career, following in the cinematic steps of such icons as Ray Charles and Johnny Cash."
