For MEL, I did a deep dive into songs about the workingman, including a certain classic by Mr. Merle Haggard. It's an interesting subset of music, reaching across all genres, and it's evolved over the years as blue-collar jobs have shifted. Hope you enjoy.
Jason Isbell's new album, The Nashville Sound, dropped last week. I'm still absorbing it, so in the meantime, here's a salute to probably the best song he's ever written.
I've long praised Drive-By Truckers, who are one of America's two best bands. (The other being the Roots.) But I've been nervous about hearing their latest record, American Band, ever since word got out that it was going to address current events head-on. As frontman Patterson Hood puts it in the liner notes, "Our records have often attempted to tell some kind of story, sometimes current things veiled in some tale set in some other time period. This album is pretty much centered around contemporary issues. Tales of our time."
And while I still like American Band, its straining to be bluntly topical ends up having limitations. DBT's best songs have tackled racism, unemployment, inequality, mortality, murder, marriage, suicide, corrupt politicians, Southern identity, and even the phony feud between Neil Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd. These guys are bright, articulate storytellers who connect the small, telling detail to larger societal issues. But American Band strips away the narrative distance these guys usually incorporate, and as a result too much of the album feels earnest rather than illuminating. For the first time in their great career, DBT are telling us what we know without really showing us fresh ways to think about what's going on around us.
At the center of my mixed feelings about American Band is "What It Means." Hood lets fly with a litany of the country's current ills, pinpointing the racial disharmony that's been rampant since Obama got elected. The killing of Trayvon Martin is connected to Ferguson, which is connected to so many other black murders. "Don’t look to me for answers," Hood sings near the end, "'cuz I don’t know what it means." This is a typical approach from artists -- survey the scene while being humble enough to admit you don't have any concrete solution -- but Drive-By Truckers have never pretended they have the answers. What they have been able to give us are characters: Whether based on real people or entirely fictional, the men and women we meet in a DBT album are folks we know. And it's through their struggles that we see ourselves; their humanity reminds us of our own.
As predictably stirring and moving as American Band can be, I find myself missing that slightly removed perspective. If you listen to "What It Means" and it gives you what you need to cope in our troubling times, that's great. Me, I nod along in agreement with everything Hood says. But agreement doesn't seem sufficient. At their best, DBT have also challenged and inspired. The spiritual exhaustion in "What It Means" and American Band is, perhaps, intentional. Lord knows a lot of us feel that way right now. In that sense, American Band is, indeed, a tale of our time.
Today, I fly to Athens, Georgia, to see my old buddy Will Leitch. So this song has been selected for two reasons. One, Drive-By Truckers (America's best rock band) are based in Athens. Second, I want to remind everyone that I've been raving about this band for years and years. Will, I am never going to let you forget that you once preferred Kings of Leon to these guys.
For most of the year, I pegged the mighty Drive-By Truckers' latest album, English Oceans, as merely good. In the last month or so, though, I've turned the corner on it. Full of rich stories -- even more so than usual with these guys -- the record is especially dark, which, again, isn't necessarily new for this band. Maybe that's why it took me a while to warm up to it: Their sustained greatness risks fans like me taking it for granted.
"Pauline Hawkins" is almost unfathomably mysterious. Patterson Hood's narrator lets his lover know just how little he thinks of her, but the intensity of his insistence makes me think he protests too much. Sounds like a guy convincing himself that he's too tough or smart for love. Plus, the musical coda at the end is a killer.
Drive-By Truckers have never had a hit, but that didn't keep them from releasing Ugly Buildings, Whores & Politicians: Greatest Hits - 1998-2009.It's terrific.
I just saw a website that declared Drive-By Truckers' new Go-Go Boots their worst album. Even if that was the case, they still operate on a level much higher than the normal band. Besides, Go-Go Boots is a damn fine record. My review is up at About.
America's best band is either Drive-By Truckers or the Roots. My glowing review of the latter's How I Got Over will be coming soon. But in the meantime, here's the title track.
Anybody who knows me is aware of what a fan of the Drive-By Truckers I am. But, seriously, their new album, The Big To-Do, is pretty great. You can read my review here.
Brighter Than Creation's Dark is the first Drive-By Truckers record since the departure of one of its three songwriters, Jason Isbell. They survive the lineup shift mostly intact. My review is at Blender.
