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. 

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...

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.

Peter Buck knocks out two new albums!

Peter Buck cut Beat Poetry For Survivalists with The Auteurs' Luke Haines and joins Scott McCaughey with Norwegian pals in The No Ones. 

THE GREAT LOST NO ONES ALBUM

The No Ones – a bi-continental collaboration featuring Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey, Frode Strømstad and Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen – is a band that stretches from the southwest of Norway through Athens, Georgia to the northwest corner of the USA, consisting of members from I Was A King, The Minus 5, The Baseball Project and R.E.M.

As this pedigree almost dictates, they wield Fender and Rickenbacker guitars, cutting, chiming and fuzzing their way through songs dealing with abduction, interstellar mysteries, witchcraft, and more mundane fare like climate change, gentrification, and the desolation of the soul. The vocal harmonies and psychedelic flourishes fuse the sunny turbulent sounds of the ‘60s with the darkness and decay of today.

 The 13-track LP, The Great Lost No Ones Album – out on Yep Roc March 27th – was recorded way back in June 2017 at Type Foundry by Adam Selzer in Portland, OR, and features Patterson Hood (“Straight Into The Bridge” and “Sweet Home Mississippi”), Darren Hanlon (“All You Need Is Rain,” “Too Blind To Believe, “Turn Again”), Andrew Reiger and Davey Wrathgabar (“Dream Something Else”), Lucy Parnell (“Sun Station Vadsø”), and Debbi Peterson (“Gone”).

Initial pressings come with a bonus 7" with the otherwise unavailable tracks "Apples" and "Slow Century." You can pre-order The Great Lost No Ones Album from Yep Roc right here. Watch the video for "Straight Into The Bridge" below and the lead track "No One Falls Alone".

BEAT POETRY FOR THE SURVIVALIST

Beat Poetry For The Survivalist is the new collaboration between Peter Buck and Luke Haines. Peter Buck was the guitarist R.E.M., the biggest band in the world. Luke Haines was the guitarist for The Auteurs who were not the biggest band in the world. Luke Haines also does paintings of Lou Reed.

One day, Peter Buck bought one of Luke Haines’ Lou Reed paintings (for £99.00) They had never met before but decided that the fates had brought them together and they should write some songs together and make an album.

Beat Poetry For The Survivalist (Omnivore) is that album. With songs about legendary rocket scientist and occultist Jack Parsons, the Enfield hauntings (of 1978), a post-apocalyptic radio station that only plays Donovan records, Bigfoot, and Pol Pot. You can order a copy of the album directly from Omnivore Recordings right here. Listen to "Jack Parsons" below.

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

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

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. 

Drive-By Truckers & Old 97's @ The Phoenix, Saturday

LINKS
Drive-By Truckers site
Flagpole: Patterson Hood discusses new DBT lineup and album

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
  

Patterson Hood ain't down with Wallmartization

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...

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