by Sheldon Birnie
It’s been a busy year for Drive-By Truckers, both present and past, even though 2012 marked possibly their least active road-schedule since the early days of their 15+ years out on the Hillbilly Highway.
I’ve talked about my obsession with the Truckers here before, so I’ll spare you all of that right now. Suffice to say that when I drove myself down to Minneapolis last October to see DBT, I caught them at the tail end of about a dozen years of long, hard travelling, and it was clear something had to give. A month or so later, long-serving bass player Shonna Tucker left the group. Coming into 2012, the group decided it was time to slow things down a little, and for the first time in years, they booked well under their regular 200+ shows. However, considering that playing music is how these fellas pay the bills, it came as no surprise that the boys got busy with other projects quickly.
Mike Cooley, who rarely performed solo gigs, set up a string of them early in the year, which were streamed online for nerds (like me) who don’t live in Athens or Atlanta or who didn’t buy up the tickets lickety-split. Luckily, the shows were recorded, and just yesterday Cooley released his first solo record, The Fool on Every Corner. While the disc is made up mostly of Cooley’s DBT tracks played solo, it does include one new tune, “Drinking Coke & Eating Ice,” along with a cover of Charlie Rich’s “Behind Closed Door.” The disc itself is a great, intimate, boozy affair, complete with plenty of hollering and mumbled stage banter. One highlight for me comes during “3 Dimes Down,” a tune complete with Tom T Hall references and a line lifted from Bob Seger’s “Rock N Roll Never Forgets,” one of rock’s best pump-you-up-for-a-night-of-boozin-anthems. Towards the end of “3 Dimes Down,” Cooley goes off on the Seger line and gets right into “Rock N Roll Never Forgets,” until he forgets the words and trails off.
Not to be outdone, the ever prolific Patterson Hood released an album of his own earlier this fall. His third solo disc, Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance is easily his strongest solo release yet — though I still prefer his stripped down, Nebraska-esque Killers & Stars. Strong writing and great arrangements are present throughout Heat Lightning, though, much like Murdering Oscar, as solid a record as it is, it leaves me wanting the chemistry of the Truckers.
As if that wasn’t enough, well, buckle up. Former Trucker Jason Isbell has been touring, recording, producing, and guesting with pals/artists like Ryan Adams and Justin Townes Earle. If that weren’t enough, he put also put out a rocking live album with his touring band The 400 Unit, titled appropriately Live From Alabama. Definitely the most rocking of the three releases here, Live From Alabama is a must have if you’re a Truckers fan, and definitely recommended listening if you’re at all into hard-travelling songwriters who work the Hillbilly Highway for a living.
With so much going on, I for one look forward to what 2013 will bring. Of course I got my fingers crossed for another DBT record, and a Winnipeg date. But I’ll take what I can get. Here’s to hoping, though…