Showing posts with label Drive-By Truckers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drive-By Truckers. Show all posts

Saturday, May 23, 2026

The Drive-By Truckers salute Stephen Colbert

The Drive-By Truckers reunited with guitarist Jason Isbell for their final appearance on The Late Show on December 2, 2025. 

From Patterson Hood...

"To say that DBT are massive fans of Stephen Colbert is an understatement in the league of saying I kind of like The Beatles, The Stones, Zeppelin or The Clash. Mr. Colbert is not only the best at what he does on TV, he is among The BEST of what America has to offer itself and the world. A true class act, top to bottom. Smart (another understatement), kind, caring, full of love and joy. And funny as hell. Truly sidesplitting hilarious, always punching up and never punching down, speaking truth to power and the ridiculousness that so often accompanies it. 

"We were honored to play Hell No, I Ain’t Happy (with Jason Isbell sitting in) on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this past winter. We did it knowing that it would be the last time. To say it was joyful would be another understatement. DBT has been doing late night TV for nearly 25 years, having done so numerous times for hosts ranging from Craig Kilborn, Conan O’Brien (numerous times on two of his shows), Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman, but this was a next level experience. The joy we witnessed backstage was moving and infectious. The staff was next-level wonderful to us and Mr. Colbert himself came back to personally greet us. It was truly one of my favorite experiences of the 30 years DBT has been a band.  

"I’d like to thank Stephen Colbert for being the man you are. A man of rare intelligence and grace, a source of joy and light in these dark times, a man of wisdom and humor when we needed it most. Thank you for what you’ve done and especially for how you’ve gone about doing it."

Much Love and Respect,

Patterson Hood and Drive-By Truckers

Watch The Drive-By Truckers with Jason Isbell perform "Hell No, I Ain't Happy" from the Definitive Decoration Day box set below. 


Friday, October 18, 2024

Drive-By Truckers reprise their Southern Rock Opera in Toronto

Drive-By Truckers are revisiting the songs from their Southern Rock Opera album at the Danforth Music Hall on Tuesday night. 

Writes Patterson Hood...





Wednesday, June 10, 2020

The Dexateens roar back with whumpin' live album

Elliott McPherson and his Dexateens crew fortunately had David Barbe record their Heathens Homecoming show in Athens, GA back in February. 
Here's the scoop...
Hailing from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, The Dexateens have built an institution from their fiery brand of punk and roll. Since 1998, as one line-up or another, they’ve left jaws agape and arms akimbo as if some kind of inadvertent hypnotism has occurred. Their first two releases, a self-titled southern punk masterpiece lovingly known as “Headphones” and their sophomore effort Red Dust Rising both came out on the legendary Estrus Records label.

Since then the band has amassed an impressive discography penned largely by bandleader Elliott McPherson. 2009’s Singlewide marks the last time songwriter and original lead guitarist John Smith worked with the band in studio. The acoustic balladry of that release along with changes to the lineup opened up fresh studio approaches while live shows remained unhinged.

The sum of their parts, a bottling of rock’s essence, they keep it locked and loaded – A Voltron-esque band of brothers with several powerful conjoining pieces that can form at any time, in any variation, to wreak audible havoc on anyone and everyone within striking distance.

This past Febuary 13th the band kicked off the Drive-By Truckers’ annual Heathens Homecoming at the legendary 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia. The line-up was almost back to basics with founding songwriters Smith and McPherson on guitars and vocals, original bassist Matt Patton (also with DBT) and the great Brian Gosdin (2007-present) on the trap kit.  This is one of the few times McPherson and Smith have played together in the past 10 years. The results are impeccable and it waves the spear for how deep the roots of “bandhood” can be – an unrehearsed recall of Smith-era highlights and less expected audibles.

Thankfully, Athens producer David Barbe (Sugar, Drive-By Truckers), had his mobile rig humming to catch this show in all its glory. The tracks were then brilliantly mixed and mastered by Barbe at his Chase Park Transduction studio. Barbe previously co-produced The Dexateens' Hardwire Healing along with DBT’s Patterson Hood.

The Dexateens' Live from Athens, GA - Heathens Homecoming 2020 is a Cornelius Chapel Records release, and it will be a Bandcamp only release made available on July 3rd. A phenomenal representation of barebones rock’n’roll. Pre-order it right here.


Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Drive-By Truckers @ Lee's Palace, Thursday & Friday

Here's DBT playing a Ramones classic and "Babies In Cages" with Athens rapper Linqua Franqa.



Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Drive-By Truckers, Erika Wennerstrom @ The Mod Club, Wednesday

Watch the Drive-By Truckers play an almost completely different set from the previous night, lasting well over 2 hours.



Wednesday, December 6, 2017

JD Wilkes enlists Bo-Keys & Jimbo Mathus for "Fire Dream" solo debut

"Walk Between The Raindrops" is off the Shack Shaker's Fire Dream album due February 16 on Big Legal Mess. 

JD Wilkes - Fire Dream

Imagine a sideshow blowing in on a Caribbean gale, only to land smack dab in a Kentucky junkyard. Then, and only then, might a listener begin to picture a suitable setting for Fire Dream, the latest solo album by musician/novelist J.D. Wilkes slated for release February 16th on Big Legal Mess via Fat Possum.

Backed by an all-star cast of the South's most eclectic musicians – including members of The Bo-Keys, Squirrel Nut Zippers and the Drive-By Truckers – Wilkes crafts a soundscape of his homeland's varied voices with the assistance of session producers Jimbo Mathus and Bruce Watson.

From the old-time music of Appalachia to the Cajun, jazz and island music of the Creole nether-glades, Fire Dream charters the listener on a journey... a journey, as it turns out, that has led only deeper into J.D.'s storied psyche.


Friday, September 16, 2016

Drive-By Truckers @ Fort York's Rebellion Stage, September 16

Drive-By Truckers don't shy away from hot-button issues on their new American Band album out Sept 30. 





Saturday, August 25, 2012

Patterson Hood nearly makes a DBT album


Better Off Without is the first single off the forthcoming solo album from Patterson Hood and fans of his group Drive-By Truckers will likely be relieved to find that Heat Lightning Rumbles In The Distance won't sound drastically different from a DBT album.

And that's about what one would expect considering that Hood's third "solo" project was co-produced by longtime Truckers collaborator David Barbe and all of Hood's bandmates (Mike Cooley, Jay Gonzalez, Brad Morgan and John Neff) appear on the thing along with Hood's celebrated bass-playing dad David Hood, Centro-matic's Will Johnson and cracker soul chanteuse Kelly Hogan.

If the album had a typically colourful Wes Freed illustration on the sleeve instead of an artfully unfocused snapshot of our man in the mirror, you wouldn't know it from a DBT release. Personally, I would've liked to hear what Hood could've done backed by the Muscle Shoals crew with Rick Hall and Dan Penn overseeing the sessions at FAME but maybe next time.

ATO Records plans to release Heat Lightning Rumbles In The Distance on September 11. In the meantime, check out Patterson's first single Better Off Without

Better Off Without by Patterson Hood
  

Saturday, December 31, 2011

The Perlich Post's Top 100 Albums of 2011


1. Tom Waits - Bad As Me
2. Nat Birchall - Sacred Dimension
3. Alela Diane & Wild Divine - Alela Diane & Wild Divine
4.
The Greg Foat Group - Dark Is The Sun
5. The Walkabouts - Travels In The Dustland
6. Heidi Happy - Hiding With The Wolves
7. The Black Keys - El Camino
8. Tristen - Charlatans At The Garden Gate
9.
Merle Haggard - Working In Tennessee
10. Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots
11. Austin Peralta - Endless Planets
12. The Dirtbombs - Party Store
13.
Boubacar Traore - Mali Denhou
14.
Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest
15. The Bo-Keys - Got To Get Back!
16. Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
17.
Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain
18. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
19.
The Fleshtones - Brooklyn Sound Solution
20.
Grimble Grumble - September Sun
21.
John Paul Keith - The Man That Time Forgot
22.
Ambrose Akinmusire - When the Heart Emerges Glistening
23.
Buddy Miller - The Majestic Silver Strings
24. Diana Panton - To Brazil With Love
25. The Reigning Sound - Abdication... For Your Love
26.
Tex Perkins - Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses
27. Bombino - Agadez
28.
Dave Alvin - Eleven Eleven
29. The Bats - Free All The Monsters
30.
OFF! - The First Four EPs
31. The Bevis Frond - The Leaving Of London
32.
Tom T. Hall - A Gift From Tom T. Hall
33. Alex Pangman - 33
34.
The Wronglers with Jimmie Dale Gilmore - Heirloom Music
35.
Nicola Conte - Love & Revolution
36.
The Pining - The Pining
37.
Phil Ranelin – Perseverance
38. Vieux Farka Toure – The Secret
39. Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming / The Instrumentals
40.
Tom Russell - Mesabi
41. Austra - Feel It Break
42. White Denim - D
43. Bruce Peninsula - Open Flames
44. Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizon Ensemble – The Prairie Prophet
45. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 - From Africa With Fury: Rise
46.
JD McPherson - Signs & Signifiers
47. Jack Oblivion - Rat City
48.
Psychic Paramount - II
49.
Matthew Shipp – Art of the Improviser
50.
Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread
51. Dengue Fever - Cannibal Courtship
52. JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound - Want More
53. Connie Smith - Long Line Of Heartaches
54. 
Jennifer Castle - Castlemusic
55. My Darling Clementine - How Do You Plead?
56.
Hanni El Khatib - Will The Guns Come Out?
57. Booker T. Jones - The Road From Memphis
58. Jeff The Brotherhood - We Are The Champions
59.
Ken Vandermark's Predella Group - Strade d'Acqua
60. Limes - Tarantula
61. Sandro Perri - Impossible Spaces
62. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
63. Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls
64.
Seu Jorge – MĂşsicas para Churrasco, Vol. 1
65. Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On
66. Daniel Romano - Sleep Beneath The Willow
67.
Meg Baird - Seasons On Earth
68. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
69. Bio Ritmo – La Verdad
70. Moon Duo - Mazes
71. Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler/The Dream
72. Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo
73. Laura Cantrell - Kitty Wells Dresses
74. Krallice - Diotima
75. 
The Ettes - Wicked Will
76. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
77. King Creosote and Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
78. Quintron - Sucre Du Sauvage
79. The Warped 45s - Matador Sunset
80.
David Kilgour - Left By Soft
81.
This One's For Him: A Tribute To Guy Clark
82. Slaid Cleaves - Sorrow & Smoke
83. Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi — Rome
84.
Purling Hiss - Dizzy Polizzy
85. Hayes Carll - KMAG YOYO
86. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Cotonou Club
87.
Royal Headache - Royal Headache
88.
Wild Beasts - Smother
89. Shelby Earl - Burn The Boats
90. Fatoumata Diawara - Fatou
91. Yuck - Yuck
92. Iceage - New Brigade
93.
Nick Lowe - The Old Magic
94.
Apache Dropout - Apache Dropout
95. Dennis Coffey - Dennis Coffey
96.
The Dirty Streets - Movements
97. The Mekons - Ancient and Modern
98. Sonny & The Sunsets - Hit After Hit
99. Glen Campbell - Ghost On A Canvas
100. Ikebe Shakedown — Ikebe Shakedown

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Truckers' Late Show salute to Eddie Hinton

Everybody Needs Love by Drive-By Truckers

Monday, February 7, 2011

Drive-By Truckers get their groove on


The notion of doing a concept album might seem strangely out-of-step with the dramatic shifts in the way people are now buying and listening to music but that makes no difference to the Drive-By Truckers who've made a decent career out of recording their grandiose visions and they aren't stopping anytime soon. Their latest creation, Go-Go Boots (ATO) – out February 15 –  is nowhere near the epic proportions of 2001's Southern Rock Opera or even 2004's The Dirty South yet the album similarly employs a song-cycle approach in which character-driven vignettes are used to detail a distinctly Southern narrative. The difference with Go-Go Boots is less thematic than geographical in that they're now focusing specifically on the Northern region of Alabama where the songwriting Truckers' Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and Shonna Tucker grew up. But don't worry, the folks who inhabit these songs are every bit as troubled, ornery or flat-out crazy as you'd encounter on any other Drive-By Truckers recording.

Perhaps most important of all, Muscle Shoals is the locus of the album's musical inspiration as the Alabama home of Rick Hall's FAME Studios and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (chiefly Jimmy Johnson, Roger Hawkins, Barry Beckett and David Hood who is Patterson's father) behind countless classic recordings by Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, the Staple Singers, Arthur Alexander, Johnnie Taylor, Clarence Carter, Tony Joe White and anyone else looking to enrich their recording with a Southern feel. Consequently Go-Go Boots takes a sharp turn away from the full-on rock attack of last year's The Big To-Do in a move towards a downtempo groove-oriented approach associated with the archetypal Muscle Shoals sound of the 60s. It's a brilliant move so masterfully executed it makes you wonder why they haven't tried this before but perhaps Hood and company needed a few years to grow into this concept.

With three prolific writers in the band, the Truckers have never needed to include any cover material on their studio albums. But Go-Go Boots being their love letter to Muscle Shoals, they've appropriately cut two sweet songs by the late great singer/songwriter and session guitarist Eddie Hinton, Everybody Needs Love and Where's Eddie, which don't seem at all out of place on the new album. Those hoping for their fix of guitar-blazing anthems to shout along with may be disappointed with the overall laidback vibe but Go-Go Boots is nevertheless the Truckers' most soulfully mature work yet and stands near the top of their career accomplishments.The video interview and song clips included below, shot by Jason Thrasher, will give you a better idea of what Go-Go Boots is all about.


It should also be noted that the Truckers have put together a limited-run bonus EP called Sometimes Late At Night to be given away free with the purchase of Go-Go Boots on February 15 at participating independent record stores. The six-song collection includes their cover of Vic Chesnutt's When I Ran Off And Left Her cut during the Go-Go Boots sessions along with live versions of Used To Be A Cop, Everybody Needs Love, Get Downtown, Mercy Buckets and a smokin' 10 minute-plus medley of Buttholeville and State Trooper with help from Cody Dickinson of the North Missisippi All Stars.


As an addendum, anyone interested in checking out Eddie Hinton's own incredible recordings should start with tracking down 1978's Very Extremely Dangerous (Capricorn), 1986's Letters From Mississippi (Mobile Fidelity) and 1999's Hard Luck Guy (Zane). 


Go-Go Boots (ATO) 
1. "I Do Believe" (Hood)
2. "Go-Go Boots" (Hood)
3. "Dancin’ Ricky" (Tucker)
4. "Cartoon Gold" (Cooley)
5. "Ray’s Automatic Weapon" (Hood)
6. "Everybody Needs Love" (Hinton)
7. "Assholes" (Hood)
8. "The Weakest Man" (Cooley)
9. "Used To Be A Cop" (Hood)
10. "The Fireplace Poker" (Hood)
11. "Where’s Eddie" (Hinton)
12. "The Thanksgiving Filter" (Hood)
13. "Pulaski" (Cooley)
14. "Mercy Buckets" (Hood)
15. "I Hear You Hummin'" (Tucker) (bonus track - vinyl only)


Go-Go Boots Preview


continues after the jump...

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Truckers' triumph

The Drive-By Truckers have been on cruise control for the last couple of releases and with most of their guitar-weilding competition going twee or hiding behind heavy reverb they could afford to ease up on the pedal. But now that those reckless Dexateens dudes have suddenly appeared in their rearview mirror with a cloud of Alabama dust behind them, the Truckers have wisely decided to gear up and put the hammer down for the righteously rockin' The Big To-Do, their debut recording for Dave Matthews' ATO label.
Although there were some understandable concerns that the solo side project of principle songwriter Patterson Hood might siphon off his choice material, that doesn't appear to have been the case. While there's no question that some of the stuff that wound up on the Murdering Oscar album could've worked for DBT, his lyrical contributions to The Big To-Do are consistently top-notch without the slightest scent of leftovers. In fact, I'd argue that Daddy Learned To Fly, The Fourth Night Of My Drinking, Drag The Lake Charlie and This Fucking Job are among his finest-ever compositions and destined to be loudly requested at shows for years to come. Just the threat of not having Hood's best for the latest album seems to have pushed sidekick guitarist Mike Cooley to new heights of inspiration. If he's written anything near as great as Birthday Boy or Eyes Like Glue before, he must be keeping it under his pillow because I certainly haven't heard it. Even DBT artist-of-choice Wes Freed outdid himself with the kooky-spooky circus-themed paintings for the sleeve and accompanying booklet. An admirable piece of work anyway you look at it.
If the Drive-By Truckers' recent April Fools Day wing-ding at Webster Hall in New York City is any indication of what's in-store at Lee's Palace, you just may need tickets for both shows of their two-night stand with Langhorne Slim tonight and tomorrow (April 6 and 7).
Evidently, the Truckers came up with more worthwhile tunes than they could squeeze onto The Big To-Do so they decided to issue two of them as a limited-edition single with a fetching sleeve for Record Store Day on April 17. Patterson Hood recently made the announcement with a press release you can read below.
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS are Proud to Announce
the release of our Exclusive Record Store Day Limited Edition Single Release of
YOUR WOMAN IS A LIVIN' THING / JUST MAYBE
Available at a fine independent record store near you on April 17.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS are proud to be a part of this year's Record Store Day.
Like the Bald Eagle and Healthcare Reform we almost let it get away before pulling out the stops and saving them in the nick of time.
The Bald Eagle has returned in fine form, but independent record stores are STILL an endangered species.
Every year more and more of these precious national resources are shuttered and closed.
Just last month I heard that one of my favorites is in dire straits.

This year we will be releasing a very special single for Record Store Day, but first let me take you back in time to January of 2009.
Bush was still in the White House and Sully was an anonymous pilot working his job.
Drive-By Truckers were toiling away in the studio beginning what would become their 10th album.
One night a strange alignment of stars interacted with the perfect chemical component setting off a chain reaction of events, fitfully captured on 2" magnetic tape stock as the wily Producer
handed over a vintage handheld microphone to a celebratory Mike Cooley during the playback of a new instrumental Shonna Tucker composition which said band had just duly nailed in a fit of R&B perfection never beheld before and WHALAH!!!

Almost everyone in that room knew that magic had just occurred.
A stream of conscious wallop of redneck beat poetry,
A channeling of the early morning rant of a Georgia taxi driver concerning the closing of another local industry into a form both compelling and idyllic in its inspiration, articulation and execution.
YOUR WOMAN IS A LIVIN' THING became nearly everyone in the band's favorite song of the 30+ songs we recorded last year.
Would it go on The Big To-Do or perhaps be the fitting end to Go-Go Boots?
"Neither" said, Mike Cooley.
"No one will ever hear it but us. It's for us and us only".
But Goddamn, Cooley!
"NO".
Months of negotiation (much like healthcare) but the stubborn NO held until...

An eleventh hour compromise:

See, Cooley loves Record Stores too.
He deemed that YOUR WOMAN IS A LIVIN' THING be released on vinyl and vinyl only
to independent record stores to celebrate that most special of nationally recognized days.
He was so excited, he even went home and wrote and recorded a B-Side (JUST MAYBE) just for the occasion.

Patterson Hood
Drive-By Truckers


LINKS
myspace http://www.myspace.com/drivebytruckers
site www.drivebytruckers.com

Monday, January 18, 2010

Truckers' Big To-do




The Drive-By Truckers played their fifth annual Athens homecoming shows at the 40 Watt Club on January 14, 15 and 16 where they hauled out some old faves, previewed new tunes from their forthcoming 10th album, The Big To-Do (due from ATO on March 16).
Singer/songwriter Patterson Hood says the David Barbe-produced recording is "more rocking than anything we've done since disc 2 of Southern Rock Opera" which is saying a lot. During the three-night stand, the Truckers were joined by Barbe to pay tribute to their pal Vic Chesnutt as well as Eddie Hinton which also brought out Hood's father, legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section bassist David Hood for two songs.
Before the 40 Watt gigs, Patterson Hood promised that the shows would be uplifting, stating on the Truckers blog "I'm planning on kicking off our first show of the decade with the most life affirming songs I can find." And true to his word, the Truckers kicked out the jams in celebratory fashion for three nights straight. The shows were documented with the band's permission by Southern Shelter (www.southernshelter.com) using a pair of Neumann KM-184 microphones and a Sony PCM-D50 recorder.

Drive-By Truckers @ 40 Watt, January 14, 2010

Track 1 – Used To Be A Cop
Track 2 – The Living Bubba
Track 3 – Women Without Whiskey
Track 4 – Sink Hole
Track 5 – Carl Perkins’ Cadillac
Track 6 – When I Ran Off And Left Her
Track 7 – Play It All Night Long
Track 8 – Birthday Boy
Track 9 – Girls Who Smoke
Track 10 – Dead Drunk And Naked
Track 11 – Guitar Man Upstairs
Track 12 – Home Field Advantage
Track 13 – This Fucking Job
Track 14 – Loaded Gun In The Closet
Track 15 – The Wig He Made Her Wear
Track 16 – Drag The Lake Charlie
Track 17 – 3 Dimes Down
Track 18 – Hell No I Ain’t Happy
Track 19 – The Flying Wallendas
Track 20 – E:) You Got Another [w/ David Barbe - bass]
Track 21 – Puttin’ People On The Moon
Track 22 – Zip City
Track 23 – Let There Be Rock[w/ David Barbe - guitar, Todd McBride  - vocal]
Track 24 – People Who Died

Download MP3


Drive-By Truckers @ 40 Watt, January 15, 2010
Track 1 – After The Scene Dies
Track 2 – The Fourth Night Of My Drinking
Track 3 – Birthday Boy
Track 4 – Girls Who Smoke
Track 5 – Home Field Advantage
Track 6 – Lookout Mountain
Track 7 – 3 Dimes Down
Track 8 – The Company I Keep
Track 9 – Where The Devil Don’t Stay
Track 10 – Play It All Night Long
Track 11 – Where’s Eddie [w/ David Hood - bass]
Track 12 – Everybody Needs Love [w/ David Hood - bass]
Track 13 – Santa Fe
Track 14 – Women Without Whiskey
Track 15 – Feb 14
Track 16 – Get Downtown
Track 17 – (It’s Gonna Be) I Told You So
Track 18 – The Flying Wallendas
Track 19 – E:) You Got Another [w/ David Barbe - bass]
Track 20 – Dancing Ricky [w/ David Barbe - bass]
Track 21 – A World Of Hurt
Track 22 – Zip City
Track 23 – Puttin’ People On The Moon
Track 24 – E2:) Rockin’ In The Free World [w/ David Barbe - guitar]
Track 25 – People Who Died [w/ David Barbe - guitar, Damon Scott - guitar]

Download MP3


Drive-By Truckers @ 40 Watt, January 16, 2010
Track 1 – The Fourth Night Of My Drinking
Track 2 – Daddy Learned To Fly
Track 3 – Birthday Boy
Track 4 – Girls Who Smoke
Track 5 – Home Field Advantage
Track 6 – Ronnie And Neil
Track 7 – Self Destructive Zones
Track 8 – Hell No I Ain’t Happy
Track 9 – Get Downtown
Track 10 – (It’s Gonna Be) I Told You So
Track 11 – After The Scene Dies
Track 12 – Loaded Gun In The Closet
Track 13 – The Wig He Made Her Wear
Track 14 -  Drag The Lake Charlie
Track 15 – Marry Me [w/ Clay Leverett - vocal]
Track 16 – Let There Be Rock [w/ Todd McBride - guitar, vocal]
Track 17 – Where’s Eddie [w/ David Hood - bass]
Track 18 – Everybody Needs Love [w/ David Hood - bass]
Track 19 – Keep On Smilin’ [w/ Mike Dillon - vocal, Kelvin Holly - guitar]
Track 20 – The Flying Wallendas
Track 21 – E:) You Got Another [w/ David Barbe - bass]
Track 22 – Puttin’ People On The Moon
Track 23 – Shut Up And Get On The Plane
Track 23 – People Who Died [w/ David Barbe - guitar]

Download MP3




Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Celebrating Eddie Hinton


While CD selecta Gord Cumming cued up Eddie Hinton's raucous Ting-A-Ling-Ling at Reposado last Tuesday night, it occurred to me that the this cozy Ossington tequila bar was probably the only joint in Toronto where the DJ would not only know that tune but be able to play the request on the spot. The other thing that hit me was that Gord, like everyone I've ever met who's equally enamoured with Hinton's rough-cut soul sound, has a different story about how they initially discovered the under-appreciated Muscle Shoals singer/songwriter who penned Cover Me for Percy Sledge and Breakfast In Bed for Dusty Springfield. Their personal testimonial almost always concludes with how they subsequently became Eddie evangelists for their own small circle of friends.
In the case of Darren Blase, the co-owner of Cincinnati's Shake It Records store and label happened across a 99-cent copy of Hinton's 1978 debut Very Extremely Dangerous (Capricorn) in a second-hand shop and grabbed it simply because the cover looked kinda cool. Once he got it home, he was delighted he did. Now, some 20 years later, Hinton's Very Extremely Dangerous is back in print, Zane Records' three volumes of his songwriting demos Dear Y'all, Playing Around and Beautiful Dream are all available on iTunes and Blase is in a position to spread the gospel according to Eddie with a series of limited seven-inch singles with some of his favourite artists covering Hinton's shoulda-been hits.    
Dangerous Highway - A Tribute To The Songs Of Eddie Hinton is planned to be a 10 single project with the first two volumes pressed in an edition of 2,000 copies apiece feature hardcore Hinton fan Greg Dulli on Volume 1 and the Drive-By Truckers do the honours for Volume 2.

 You can count on Dulli to revel in the darker aspects of Cover Me and Hard Luck Guy while the Truckers' Patterson Hood (son of Hinton's Muscle Shoals rhythm section buddy David Hood) sounds born to sing Everybody Needs Love and bassist Shonna Tucker brings an aching sweetness to Where's Eddie? which Hinton penned with Lulu in mind. Those two records are available from the Shake It Records site with follow-up installments from the Heartless Bastards and Hinton's songwriting partner Donnie Fritts due early in 2010.
It would be great to see fellow converts like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Bobby Womack, Mavis Staples, the Black Keys and Kings Of Leon getting involved although, realistically, Blase's budget of $1,000 per artist probably wouldn't cover the parking costs for any of their tour buses. Of course, Blase would be the first to admit that this endeavour is not intended to be a big money-maker, just a labour of love by another Eddie convert trying to introduce a few more people to the greatest soul singer they've never heard.

Ting-A-Ling-Ling by Eddie Hinton, 1991



Everybody Needs Love by Drive-By Truckers @ Cox Theatre, Macon GA 08/20/09


Links
MySpace www.myspace.com/eddiehintonzane
iTunes http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=19433
Shake It Records www.shakeitrecords.com
Zane Records www.zanerecords.com
Live at Rose's Cantina in Atlanta 1979