Drive-By Truckers

In the course of three excellent studio albums, Alabama's Drive-By Truckers have updated
Lynyrd Skynyrd's legacy for a new generation of Southerners; the band's songs are for
lovable fuck-ups who get fired from shitty jobs, then drink an entire bottle of Jack Daniel's
and puke in their girlfriend's bushes. The leaner, softer Decoration Day finds the Truckers
ditching the three-guitar rave-ups and concept-album narratives of 2001's South... More >

First six songs are perfect--incest, elopement, foreclosure, and "Hell No, I Ain't Happy" from main man Patterson Hood, Stones song of a bitterness that passeth superstar understanding from second banana Mike Cooley, and young Jason Isbell hitting the road with his dad's blessing: "Have fun but stay clear of the needle/Call home on your sister's birthday/Don't tell them you're bigger than Jesus/Don't give it away." Without fussing over bridges and such, they treat their job like a calling--verses are packed with stories they need to tell and choruses ring out with why. The intensity wanes as they mull two suicides and several busted marriages, at least until a hard-rocking dirge about a feud brings the title into focus. But throughout they succeed in rendering Southern gothic as social realism. Somebody tell Charlie Watts jazz is for hobbyists. (Grade: A-)