The Dirty South [Digipak]

Performer: Drive-By Truckers
Engineer: David Barbe; Daniel Rickard
Producer: David Barbe; Reverend David Barbe
Distributor: RED Distribution

Notes: Drive-By Truckers: Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, Jason Bell, Brad Morgan, Shonna Tucker. Personnel: Jason Isbell (vocals, electric 12-string guitar, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Wurlitzer organ, background vocals); Shonna Tucker (vocals); Mike Cooley (banjo, harmonica); David Barbe (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, background vocals); Patterson Hood (piano); Clay Leverett (background vocals). Additional personnel: David Barbe, Clay Leverett, The Minor Hill Singers, The State Line Chain Gang. Audio Mixers: David Barbe; John Agnello. Liner Note Author: Patterson Hood. Recording information: Chase Park Transduction, Athens, GA; The Legendary Fame Recording Studio, Muscle Shoals, AL. Director: David Barbe. Photographers: Adam Smith; Patrick Hood. After recording SOUTHERN ROCK OPERA--a two-act, two-disc epic about growing up in the American South--and then following it up with 2003's equally lauded DECORATION DAY, one might think Drive-By Truckers would be out of energy. But nothing seems tired about 2004's THE DIRTY SOUTH. In an age when some artists are building a glamorous "redneck" image, Drive-By Truckers convey realistic, hard-hitting truths about life in the margins of the South. Here the Truckers unveil a dark, lean roots-rock set redolent of whiskey, low-income housing, and kudzu vines, as they spin narratives about war veterans ("The Sands of Iwo Jima"), steel workers ("The Day John Henry Died"), and convicts ("The Boys from Alabama"). With the exception of a couple of hook-filled, sing-along rockers, the band favors portraits of struggle. "Puttin' People on the Moon" depicts a character working at department store and selling drugs to support his family, while "Cottonseed" is a confession from a murderous outlaw. There are traces of Merle Haggard's mythos, Neil Young's vulnerability, and the Southern rock of Lynyrd Skynyrd here, but THE DIRTY SOUTH also boasts an integrity and individuality that demands to be heard.

Rolling Stone (p.142) - Included in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Records Of 2004 - "[F]ourteen loud and moving, war-at-home songs by the boldest 'n' baddest Southern band in the land." Spin (p.122) - "[T]he amps are at 11 and the vocals sound as if they've been fed through a brush chipper....The band also have developed a decidedly funky edge." - Grade: A- Uncut (p.118) - 4 stars out of 5 - "This record is about identity and resolve in the face of wretched fate. Awash with folklore, there's a rare sensibility in the songs of Hood, Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell that's gripped by mortality as much as myth." Uncut (p.74) - Ranked #22 in Uncut's "Best New Albums of 2004" - "[Their] punk discharges on love, drugs and mutual loathing sound beautifully, if brutally, honest." Magnet (p.98) - "My Morning Jacket and the Kings of Leon are praised as the current standard bearers of Southern rock, but only the Truckers are worthy enough to fly the flag." Mojo (Publisher) (p.102) - 4 stars out of 5 - "THE DIRTY SOUTH finds the band furthering its Jim Thompson-meets-Lynyrd Skynyrd brand of redneck noir with another sharply observed song cycle....Here, they go even further, displaying a lurid intelligence that seeks to explore an alternate American history..."

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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