[.ca] Decoration Day

From Amazon.com:
They earned wide acclaim with the double-disc Southern Rock Opera, a sprawling concept album about Lynyrd Skynyrd. Their three-guitar lineup and greasy look signify big, dumb rock in the minds of many, but their songwriting is relentlessly whip-smart. And what may be their greatest song, "The Living Bubba," is an ode to a righteous, hard-rocking redneck felled by AIDS. No, the Drive-By Truckers never do anything by the book, so it's no surprise that with Decoration Day, the band's first release for indie New West Records, Patterson Hood and his mates take another rewarding left turn. The album boasts a handful of crowd-pleasing, party-starting cuts, like the brash, cranky rocker "Hell No, I Ain't Happy" and the Stones ringer "Marry Me." Yet more common are moments of startling beauty (the steel solos on "The Deeper In" and "Loaded Gun in the Closet" and the jangling guitars, rolling melodies, and soulful fiddle breaks of "Heathens" and "My Sweet Annette") and heavy doses of recrimination and regret, as in the back-to-back suicide tunes "When the Pin Hits the Shell" and "Do It Yourself." --Anders Smith Lindall

A Must Have:
Brash and brilliant as Decoration Day is, Drive By Truckers sound on it like a band in transition. When they rock, hard and often, their sound comes straight from the muscle and rowdy tradition of the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the mostly overlooked Georgia Satellites. Hell No, I Ain't Happy is the template and while it is a great sing-a-long bar line of resentment, it's also probably the weakest of the CD's very generous fifteen cuts. Decoration Day excels because where the Truckers were previously mostly a vehicle for front man Patterson Hood, they now showcase two more major writing talents, Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell. With their contributions and Hood's own better compositions, it's as if the Truckers have mainlined some William Faulkner and Flannery O'Conner, put a whole new true twist on all those tired Southern traditions and cliches. So we get Hood's sympathetic tale of incest, The Deeper In ("..but you took to his jawline and his long sandy hair. How he made you feel like none of the others."), Cooley's rocking Marry Me ("rock and roll means well but it can't help telling young boys lies" or "there's a fool on every corner, on every street, in everyone/and I'd rather be your fool nowhere than go somewhere and be no one's"), Isbell's Outfit (a father's lesson in pride to a son), back to back songs of survivor anger at suicides (When the Pin Hits the Shell and Do It Yourself) and, finally, the spare acoustical Loaded Gun in the Closet. In each of these songs and several others, the scenes and characters are so quirkily and sharply drawn that you feel them alive right beside you. An even more interesting question than the accomplishment of Decoration Day is what happens next for the band. If the creative egos can co-exist and not implode in their competition, Drive By Truckers are likely to become the standard by which all future hard-rocking Southern bands will be judged. Aside -- if you're impressed, as I clearly am, see the Drive By Truckers live. They clearly inherit the Stones and James Brown crowns of hardest working band in show business. They, with their female bassist a recent addition, played nearly three hours at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle where I saw them and it was some of the best twelve bucks I'd ever spent. Not least because of their Play It All Night tribute to Warren Zevon -- "play that dead man's song/Turn the speakers up full blast, Play it all night long." They did, they did, and they damn near did.

A Great Album From Start To Finish:
This album was my first experience with the DBT and floored me from the start. Yes, this is definetly southern rock no less. Songs about incest, cheating, death, defeat, etc. There is variety yet a cohesiveness with three band members taking there turns with the songwriting and leads in songs. Overall, a great set of songs played with passion by a well seasoned band. And screw the moron who dissed this album, it rocks.

The Best ROCK Record in Ages:
There have not been many great records of late that one could say are "roll down the windows and sing along at the top of your lungs". This one cetainly qualifies. Many people cite Lynyrd Skynyrd or the Allman Bros., but what I hear is Steve Earle joining up with the Replacements. These guys don't shoot for the majesty of FREE BIRD, instead they create a grungy Southern-Fried Riff rock that draws as much from punk as classic rock. Great songs, supurb lyrics and a blue collar spirit that does not dumb itself down to the lowest common denominator. HELL NO I AIN'T HAPPY could be an anthem of epic proportions if ever anyone heard it on the radio. All in all, a modern (Southern) classic.

Patterson Hood in DENTON TEXAS 6-12-04:
What can be said.. Patterson makes the world a better place, with the help of Brad Morgan, aka Easy B, he rocked north Dallas from 11pm until 1:30am at Dan's silver leaf. From the start he dropped songs on us like Heathens,Uncle Disney,Sink Hole,etc.. you go to a show wanting at least 1-2 of the songs you love. I got around 15 of my favorites. I hope anyone who can will go and see him or DBT. Buy there stuff. I can't figure out why they haven't blown up BIGTIME. They will hit it big or there is no justice on this planet.Congrats on your recent marriage.

A true heartbreaker...:
It's pretty much all there. The grit of country, the anger of rock, and the bone deep sadness of the blues. Most bands (these days anyway) are falling apart by their third album, but these guys just keep getting better. I can't listen to the title track or When The Pin Hits The Shell or Sounds Better In The Song without tearing up a bit. Conversely, Marry Me and Outfit sorta sound like if you got The Eagles good and drunk, beat the sh** out of 'em, woke 'em up the next day and made 'em record. At the same time, those songs also make me feel pretty good, without a single "don't worry, be happy" cliche in 'em. And personally, if music doen't provoke an emotional reaction, then it just plain sucks. And given the wealth of emotions this album's given me, I'd be a hypocritical jerk to give it less than 5 stars...

• The Deeper In
• Sink Hole
• Hell No, I Ain’t Happy
• Marry Me
• My Sweet Annette
• Outfit
• Heathens
• Sounds Better In The Song
• (Something's Got To) Give Pretty Soon
• Your Daddy Hates Me
• Careless
• When The Pin Hits The Shell
• Do It Yourself
• Decoration Day
• Loaded Gun In The Closet