DAVE'S DIARY - 14 FEBRUARY 2005 - DRIVE BY TRUCKERS
DRIVE
BY TRUCKERS
DECORATION DAY - (NEW WEST-SHOCK).
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Dixie
bred Drive By Truckers are no strangers to headline hunting to land
punches in the music jungle. So it's no surprise they kick off fifth album Decoration Day with The Deeper In - tale of a brother and sister doing seven years in a Michigan jail for incest. Alabama born guitarist singer Paterson Hood wrote it after reading a 1998 article on the case - he based Sink Hole on award winning short film The Accountant. Hood's character, defending the five-generation family farm from foreclosing bankers, suggests burying the city invader in a sinkhole. |
"Five
generations and an unlocked door/ and a loaded burglar alarm" is
southern security.
Drive By Truckers graphically depict their deep Dixie roots to audiences
immune to city culture and disposable music fads.
Hood's Hell No, I Ain't Happy and Mike Cooley's Marry Me
portray temptation and grit of life on the road.
The former opts for a few days at home between tours and latter chooses
love and quits.
There's a nice twist in Hood's bride left at the altar parable My Sweet
Annette with Scott Danbom's fiddle and John Noff's pedal steel.
New guitarist Jason Isbell, 25, wrote the title track - a small town post
war drama where death returns on Decoration Day - two days after joining
the band.
"It's Decoration Day, I've got a family in Mobile Bay/ and they've
never seen my daddy's grave/ but that don't bother me, it ain't marked
anyway."
OUTFIT
| His
other blue-collar father-son homily Outfit is equally memorable. "Don't call what you're wearing an outfit/ don't sing with a fake British accent/ have fun but stay clear of the needle/ don't tell them you're bigger than Jesus." Paternal advice and conflict is a staple in Hood's suicide saga Do It Yourself and Your Daddy Hates Me. Hood drives his vehicular metaphor of countrified Heathens - sibling song of sorts for Cooley penned Sounds Better In The Song. Cooley milks the substance abuse metaphor of When The Pin Hits The Shell, replete with Spooner Oldham on Wurlitzer, with equal vitriol. His finale Loaded Gun In The Closet is more Cold Mountain than Gone With The Wind. |
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The sting
is in the tail of the weapon tale sure to be misconstrued by PC genre
cleansers.
DBT live up to acclaim for their previous Southern Rock Opera that they
released in 2001 before Lost Highway released it.