Decoration Day

Performer: Drive-By Truckers
Engineer: David Barbe
Producer: David Barbe
Distributor: RED Distribution

Notes: Drive-By Truckers: Mike Cooley, Earl Hicks, Patterson Hood, Jason Isbell, Brad Morgan. Additional personnel: David Barbe, Clay Leverett, John Neff, Spooner Oldham, Scott Danborn, Bob Spires, Shanna Tucker. Recorded at Chase Park Transduction Studios, Athens, Georgia. Personnel: Jason Isbell, Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley (vocals, guitar); David Barbe (guitar, Wurlitzer organ, keyboards); Scott Danborn (fiddle); Spooner Oldham (Wurlitzer organ); Brad Morgan (drums). Audio Mixer: David Barbe. Recording information: Chase Park Transduction, Athens, GA (2002). Photographer: David Wilds. Though SOUTHERN ROCK OPERA is probably the Drive-By Truckers' most ambitious album, its follow-up, DECORATION DAY, is where the band really came into its own. The template they established on their first three albums--bluesy Southern rock with a raw punk edge and a contemporary alt-country tinge--is at it's most concise and visceral here, not only musically, but lyrically as well. In a manner not dissimilar to THE RIVER-era Springsteen, DECORATION DAY articulates working-class dilemmas with a winning mixture of thoughtfulness and rock 'n' roll abandon, understanding that the means of expressing those dilemmas is often indistinguishable from the way out of them.

Rolling Stone (12/25/03, pp.105-6) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2003" Rolling Stone (6/26/03, p.81) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...The leaner, softer, DECORATION DAY finds the Truckers ditching the three-guitar rave-ups and concept-album narratives of 2001's SOUTHERN ROCK OPERA in favor of tuneful evocations of the darker side of Southern life..." Spin - (08/03, pp.111-2) - "...A raging, ragged BEHIND THE MUSIC--15 coal-black odes to the casualties that art leaves behind and that life can't avoid..." - Grade: A Entertainment Weekly (6/20/03, p.72) - "...It's clear their vision of a proud blue collar band is evolving..." - Rating: B Q (12/03, p.124) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...These five Alabama natives have made it their mission to keep the spirit of an era alive....There's a new sense of darkness and despair at their core..." Mojo (Publisher) (01/01/04, p.58) - Ranked #22 in Mojo's "The Best of 2003" Mojo (Publisher) (12/03, p.114) - 5 stars out of 5 - "Some of the songwriting is exceptional..."

Despite tongue-in-cheek album titles like SOUTHERN ROCK OPERA and GANGSTABILLY, Athens, Georgia's Drive-by Truckers take their Lynyrd Skynyrd very seriously, as well as their Neil Young and their Replacements. Redneck rock for the 2000s liberal indie-rock crowd, DBTs play straight-up, heartfelt classic rock with a genuine love for the music. Although their lyrics often contain doses of wry humor, it's never at Dixie's expense.

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