They're also a little more serious minded; the days of blatant parody from the early days like "The President's Penis Is Missing" and "Too Much Sex (Too Little Jesus)" are far behind. Cooley's two minute account of a middle-aged hetero man who never married in "Bob" has plenty enough wit for the whole album, though.
The other area of growth is the emergence of a third significant songwriting voice. Bassist Shonna Tucker, who replaced Earl Hicks around 2003, contributes "I'm Sorry Huston," "Home Field Advantage," "The Purgatory Line" and " and provides the lead vocals to them. And her harmony often proves to be the perfect companion to Hood's hoarse, high-pitched voice. As it turns out, Tucker's drawl is also just as heavy as Hood's, sounding a lot like another Tucker: Tanya.
The Truckers often wear their influences on their sleeves and it's easy to imagine "3 Dimes Down" as a Faces tune sung by Mick Jagger, or "Righteous Path" and "That Man I Shot" as lost Tom Petty songs, or "Perfect Timing" a forgotten Johnny Cash track. But these are songs that would rank among the better ones of these legends if it came from them instead.
The album also gets a lift from the guest appearance of legendary Muscle Shoals keyboardist Spooner Oldham, to whom this CD is dedicated. Spooner provides a delicate, precise counterweight to the band's often rough edges, as in the warm electric piano he provides to "Daddy..." or on the trademark Nashville piano tinkling along the edges in the quietly surreal "Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife."
There are nineteen songs in all on Brighter Than Creation's Dark. That's enough to fit on two vinyl platters, and the double-vinyl version of this record will roll out in a couple of weeks. Hood has noted that a dozen of these songs were introduced during 2007's The Dirt Underneath tour, and while there's nary a clunker in this entire lot, the album might have been consistently better without the extra six or seven tracks. It's hard to hold listeners' interest for this long and about two thirds through the CD starts to sounds tired and redundant. But there are more good-to-excellent songs on this release than any other DBT album save for Southern Rock Opera. The Drive-By Truckers is an already really good rock band that ten years after their first record are still getting better.
photo by Jason Thrasher
Article comments
1 - Connie Phillips
Congrats! This article has been forwarded to the Advance.net websites and Boston.com.
2 - Rose
I have to admit, I've never been compelled to check these guys out before- but this is a resounding endorsement that makes me want to rethink my stance.