DRIVE BY TRUCKERS fans, UNITE!!!

Slobberbone runs circles around the DBTs

Cool, take it to the Slobberbone thread. Oh wait...there isn't one.

how dare you

Good damn question, and not just for musicians:

Shonna Tucker
@ShonnaTucker
Is there a dating app for people who take covid seriously & live in a rural place that has lowest vaccine percentage so never leave the house but still want to find a soulmate knowing there’s like zero chance of that where they are but not ready to move because ‘musician’ or no?

Just started Deusner's Truckers book, and so far it's absolutely great. He wrote a nice piece about the band int he WaPo, too.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/09/26/key-longevity-drive-by-truckers/

I'd like to read that just to read about Athens in the late 90s early 00s. A great time musically - E6, the glands, DBT.... the dave matthews tribute band

Felt great to see them last night after so long, not least because this was the rescheduled date from ... Friday, March 13, 2020. An actual email I sent March 12, 2020: "Ugh, I hate to do this but out of an abundance of caution I think I'm going to stay home tomorrow, which sucks, because they are one of my favorite bands. I'm fine, it's everyone else I'm worried about! ;)"

A book about the Truckers was published in September---is it good?
https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/deusner-where-the-devil-dont-stay

It's great, Stephen did a good job.

Thanks, Josh, and now I see I missed your original post about it.
Finally back to Twitter, and just saw this, retweeted by Shonna:
@matthewbwake
There's a new and well-crafted biography on
@drivebytruckers
out. Talked with author
@stephenmdeusner
about it. For the book, he interviewed Patterson, Cooley, Shonna, Isbell and other key figures in this beloved Southern rock band's history.
Here's Wake's feature:
https://www.al.com/life/2021/11/acclaimed-southern-rock-bands-complete-saga-told-for-first-time.html

November 15, 2021—The Orion Amphitheater, Huntsville’s newest live entertainment destination, will celebrate its opening weekend May 13-15, 2022, with The First Waltz—a landmark event featuring many of music’s most beloved artists, all of whom have deep ties to the North Alabama region. Across the momentous three-day event, there will be performances from Brittany Howard, Drive-By Truckers, Emmylou Harris, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, John Paul White, Mavis Staples, St. Paul & The Broken Bones and Waxahatchee with more guests to be announced. The weekend will wrap on Sunday with special performances from Huntsville’s own vibrant musical community including The Aeolians of Oakwood University, Kelvin Wooten & Deqn Sue, Translee and Huntsville Community Drumline.
Tickets will go on sale this Friday, November 19 at 10:00am CT via theorionhuntsville.com. Multi-night packages will be available.
The First Waltz is just the first of many iconic events that will take place at the amphitheater next year. Further details are to be announced soon.
“I can't believe it’s finally happening,” Ben Lovett, Venue Group CEO said. “So many hours of work by so many people to get to this point and we're just now announcing our first event! This venue will be a significant new addition for the people in and around Huntsville as it serves as a beacon of the community, it will also stand tall amongst the live performance community as one of the best venues in the world. There are artists performing at The First Waltz who have never played in Huntsville before alongside others who have lived and breathed this special region of Northern Alabama their whole lives. I couldn’t be more excited and grateful to both the artists and the City of Huntsville and the people of Huntsville for their sustained commitment and belief in doing something magical here.”
“The Orion Amphitheater will be an impressive quality-of-life addition to complement our thriving arts and entertainment community,” Tommy Battle, Huntsville Mayor said. “We anticipate this amazing venue will help attract and recruit new people and ideas to our community from across the Southeast.”
Located adjacent to the emerging MidCity District and designed by a team led by Ben Lovett, Mike Luba and David M. Schwarz Architects, Inc., The Orion Amphitheater reinvents the concept of a major event space. By expanding usage beyond hosting live music, The Orion Amphitheater will provide year-round community programming with seasonal markets, food and film festivals, regional theater productions, environmental symposiums, and family friendly events.
“The Orion Amphitheater is an architectural landmark different from others in the city, and together with the elevated hospitality, we are re-setting the tone for Huntsville’s cultural future,” said Ryan Murphy, The Orion Amphitheater General Manager.
The Orion Amphitheater is firmly committed to becoming a leader in sustainability for North Alabama with plans to roll out its comprehensive sustainability platform early next year.
More info:
https://www.theorionhuntsville.com/
National Press:
carla at sacksco.com
Regional:
Jdyhood at aol.com

Dear Jason Isbell, Drive-By Truckers et al., I know you love your roots, but please stop hosting awesome looking festivals where it's really hard for me to get to. Thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbzfpSPKAwY

Drive-By Truckers have announced the release of their 14th studio album, Welcome 2 Club XIII, due via ATO Records on Friday, June 3. Pre-orders are available now. Welcome 2 Club XIII is heralded by today’s premiere of its swinging title track, “Welcome 2 Club XIII,” available for streaming and download; the track – which pays homage to the Muscle Shoals honky-tonk where founding members Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley got their start – is joined by an official music video streaming now via YouTube.

“There were no cool bars in town and Club XIII was the best we had,” says Hood, referring to the two vocalist/guitarists’ former band, Adam’s House Cat, “but it wasn’t all that good, and our band wasn’t particularly liked there. From time to time the owner would throw us a Wednesday night or let us open for a hair-metal band we were a terrible fit for, and everyone would hang out outside until we were done playing. It wasn’t very funny at the time, but it’s funny to us now.”

Arriving as Drive-By Truckers enters its 26th year, Welcome 2 Club XIII marks a sharp departure from the trenchant commentary of The Unraveling and The New OK (both released in 2020). Produced by longtime Drive-By Truckers collaborator David Barbe and mainly recorded at his studio in Athens, GA, Welcome 2 Club XIII took shape over the course of three frenetic days in summer 2021 – a doubly extraordinary feat considering that the band had no prior intentions of making a new album. Featuring background vocals from the likes of Margo Price, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, and Mississippi-bred singer/songwriter Schaefer Llana, Welcome 2 Club XIII was recorded live with most songs cut in one or two takes, fully harnessing Drive-By Truckers’ freewheeling energy. Songs like epic, darkly thrilling “The Driver” and the spirited, horn-blasted “Every Single Storied Flameout” see the band – whose lineup also includes keyboardist/guitarist Jay Gonzalez, bassist Matt Patton, and drummer Brad Morgan – looking back on their formative years with both deadpan pragmatism and profound tenderness, instilling each song with the kind of lived-in detail that invites bittersweet reminiscence of your own misspent youth.

“Cooley and I have been playing together for 37 years now,” Hood says. “That first band might have failed miserably on a commercial level, but I’m really proud of what we did back then. It had a lot to do with who we ended up becoming.”

Drive-By Truckers – who just wrapped their annual four-day “Heathen Homecoming” event at Athens, GA’s famed 40 Watt – are currently celebrating Welcome 2 Club XIII with a marathon live schedule, including top-billed festival dates, and North American, European, and UK headline tours. For complete details and ticket information, please visit www.drivebytruckers.com/shows.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS LIVE 2022

APRIL
12 - Ponte Vedra, FL - Ponte Vedra Concert Hall *
14 - Augusta, GA - Imperial Theatre *
15 - Nashville, TN - Brooklyn Bowl Nashville *
16 - Nashville, TN - Brooklyn Bowl Nashville *
18 - Lexington, KY - The Burl (Outdoors) *
20 - Ashland, KY - Paramount Arts Center *
21 - Harrisburg, PA - Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center *
22 - Syracuse, NY - Westcott Theater *
23 - Ottawa, ON - Bronson Centre *
24 - Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall *
26 - Burlington, VT - Higher Ground *
28 - Boston, MA Royale *
29 - Asbury Park, NJ - Stone Pony *
30 - Philadelphia, PA - Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia *

MAY
1 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle *
12 - Memphis, TN - Soundstage at Graceland
13 - Natchez, MS - Mudbug Music Festival
14 - Huntsville, AL - Orion Amphitheatre
24 - Helsinki, Finland - Tavastia Club †
26 - Stockholm, Sweden - Berns †
27 - Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller †
28 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Amager Bio †
29 - Aarhus, Denmark - Train †
31 - Hamburg, Germany - Markthalle †

JUNE
1 - Berlin, Germany - Kesselhaus †
2 - Koln, Germany - Kantine †
3 - Antwerp, Belgium - De Roma †
5 - Raalte, Netherlands - Ribs and Blues †
6 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso †
7 - Brighton, UK - Chalk †
8 - London, UK - O2 Forum †
9 - Leeds, UK - Leeds University Stylus †
11 - Dublin, Ireland - Vicar Street †
12 - Glasgow, UK - SWG3 TV Studio †
14 - Tilburg, Netherlands - 013 (Jupiler Zaal) †
15 - Paris, France - La Maroquinerie †
17 - Mendizabala, Vitoria-Gasteiz - Azkena Rock Festival
19 - Eridge Park, UK - Black Deer Festival

JULY
14 - Breckenridge, CO - Riverwalk Center
15 - Denver, CO - Levitt Pavilion
16 - Kansas City, MO - Knuckleheads
19 - Omaha, NE - Falconwood Park
20 - Minneapolis, MN - Utepils Brewing
22 - Des Moines, IA - Hoyt Sherman Place
23 - Dayton, OH - Dayton Masonic Center
24 - Kalamazoo, MI - Bell’s Beer Garden
27 - Fort Wayne, IN - The Clyde Theatre
29 - St. Louis, MO - Open Highway Music Festival
30 - Maryville, TN - The Shed
31 - Wilmington, NC - Greenfield Lake Amphitheater

AUGUST
2 - Virginia Beach, VA - Elevation 27
4 - Deerfield, MA - Tree House Brewing Company
5 - Buffalo, NY - Town Ballroom
8 - Patchogue, NY - Patchogue Theatre
10 - Isle of Palms, SC - The Windjammer
11 - Isle of Palms, SC - The Windjammer
12 - Charlotte, NC - Neighborhood Theatre
13 - Pelham, TN - The Caverns

SEPTEMBER
16 - Louisville, KY - Bourbon & Beyond

* w/Special Guest Lydia Loveless
† w/Special Guest Jerry Joseph

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS
WELCOME 2 CLUB XIII
(ATO RECORDS)
Release Date: June 3, 2022

TRACKLIST:
The Driver
Maria’s Awful Disclosures
Shake and Pine
We will never wake you up in the morning
Welcome 2 Club XIII
Forged In Hell and Heaven Sent
Every Single Storied Flameout
Billy Ringo In The Dark
Wilder Days

I don't love "Welcome 2 Club XIII" as a song all that much, but as someone who lived in Muscle Shoals in the 90s I'm intimately familiar with Club XIII and I love the hell out of them for memorializing it.

Lol at them playing Long Island (patchogue?) and buffalo NY but skipping NYC. They’re even playing the “Brooklyn bowl Philadephia” whatever

Out today, sounds like ... the Drive-By Truckers.

otm

Oops, behind on my Twitter feed:

Happy birthday to Spooner!
🥳♥️🍦♥️🎉♥️🍿 pic.twitter.com/EvYKCE43fs

— Shonna Tucker (@ShonnaTucker) June 14, 2022

Feel bad because they are playing tonight at the Taste of Chicago but I really don't feel like dealing with Taste of Chicago to see them.

Ha.

New album is just ok (as noted above )

I like the album more than anything since 2007, but, damn, it's as if they want you to concentrate on the lyrics instead of their bulldozer of an attack 15 years ago (yeah, they've aged, I know).

Pushing 60!

I'm glad I didn't go, because I guess half the show got rained out.

There are some rumors that Cooley may be off the wagon ...

I've only seen them once, back in the summer of 2007. At the time I felt a little bad for seeing them "too late" because Jason Isbell had already left, but I guess I still caught them at an ideal time?

(I did enjoy the show, which was great - they even covered Springsteen's "State Trooper.")

First time I saw them was ... 2001? Maybe the year before? Whenever it was, it was pre-Isbell. They're a good enough band that they were great before Isbell and have been great after, and always good live.

Among albums since 2007, I found The Big To-Do musically refreshed, also liked The Unraveling, which seemed a better balance of topical lyrics and music than American Band, and especially liked The New OK (English Oceans was alright too). Haven't listened to new one yet, but if you do want the uncut club rowdiness they're apparently nostalgic for, by all means check out Alabama Asswhuppin'.

I'm pretty sure that's the first one I heard. I want to say the first time I'd even *heard* of the band was when their van was robbed and they lost all the music they'd been listening to, so solicited mixtapes from fans.

Where are the rumors Re: Cooley and the wagon? When did he get on it? I saw him in 2014 and he definitely wasn’t on it then.

Been a hardcore DBT fan since I was in high school back in 2002/2003 — Brighter Than Creation’s Dark was the last time they were a great band in the studio in my opinion, though. I liked English Oceans and the Unraveling, I can tolerate portions of Big to Do/Go Go Boots and American Band, I thought the New OK was godawful, and the new one is alright at times but I won’t ever be reaching for it.

I think I had seen something on one of the fan boards, people claiming to have witnessed Cooley being kind of sloppy and forgetting lyrics and stuff. But there were also people who countered that, basically saying, he's almost 60, there are a million songs and no setlist, so mistakes will be made. Anyway, just gossip, I've never seen it myself.

I thought I heard Cooley got on the wagon ... maybe around Brighter? Maybe when he had a kid (which I think was before that)? I can't remember, but it was somewhere around the end of Isbell. Of course, Isbell's relationship with drinking, etc., was more extreme, but I think the stress of the band was leading Cooley to drink a lot more. They used to pass around a bottle of Jack on stage, can't remember the last time I saw that. (Though I did see them do that once in Los Angeles, where they passed a bottle to Luther Dickinson, who himself was then, iirc, formally on the wagon himself.)

Just finding out that playing the bass 2+hrs a night and riding in a van/bus 6-12 hrs a day for 20 years can give you spinal lumbar spondylosis. Dr asked me if I was a gymnast :)

— Shonna Tucker (@ShonnaTucker) July 11, 2022

follow-up: no more touring for a while.

However, there are consolations at home:

View from the toilet ♥️ pic.twitter.com/xXD78oVWib

— Shonna Tucker (@ShonnaTucker) July 24, 2022

Sometimes a band is more than just the people who make the music. @drivebytruckers and other artists’ glorious visuals were made by artist Wes Freed, who died today. pic.twitter.com/J35OoIiA4L

— Record Store Day (@recordstoreday) September 5, 2022

Damn. Salut, Freedbird, heading toward Autumn, dispensing Southern Gothic trick-or-treats along thee way.

RIP

we still have a faded peeling Cooleybird decal on the rear window of our car at the moment, we were planning to scrape it off & replace it w something else but I guess it’s staying a while longer now <3

He was their Neon Park or Pedro Bell. RIP

Interview w Wes, mentioning his book, new to me---here's cover:

https://www.al.com/resizer/UnRQAhqg9wOhy-Bn-l6lPuVhx4o=/800x0/smart/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-advancelocal.s3.amazonaws.com/public/DEI42TIMDRFCVC5CSESRBRU4BQ.jpg

if that goes away, it's also displayed in interview:
https://www.al.com/life/2019/12/the-secrets-of-drive-by-truckers-trippy-album-covers.html

holy shit, I only saw the most recent post and was going to say something about the book, then googled to look something up and saw that he had died. I am literally wearing a Wes Freed Truckers shirt right now.

https://i.imgur.com/7BqmrwO.jpg

bands more closely connected to a particular visual artist than DBTs / Freed ... what's the list? can't be too many.

Pedro Bell, Pettibon, Saville ...

RIP Wes Freed, always one of my favorite things about DBTs

XP Neon Park & Little Feat, maybe Stanley Mouse & the Dead.

I've got a copy of Brighter than Creations Dark that lives in my car for those times I don't feel like listening to the radio. I put it on this morning for the first time in a while and damn if some songs still don't give me the chills. If Soringsteen in his formative years captured something about the death of the American dream, this band, better than most, possibly better than any, really captures the stench of its decaying corpse. And does so through humor, through character studies, through daydreams and nightmares put to song.

Cool shirt!

Wes Freed’s artwork, including the “Cooley Bird,” was synonymous with the Drive-By Truckers https://t.co/9wyDwWst9P

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) September 5, 2022

Tweeted by Stephen Deusner, author of xpost Where the Devil Don't Stay: Traveling the South with the Drive-By Truckers:

Incredibly sad news today. Wes Freed, the artist who has been painting album covers for the
Drive-By Truckers and who donated the cover image for my book (wouldn't take payment
either, just gave it to us), passed away. | don't even know where to begin, but he was one of my
favorite visual artists, with a distinctive style that was surprisingly complex the more you
looked at and thought about his images.

Like the Truckers and like me he had a conflicted love for the South and his work embraced
the beauty of the place and rejected the ugliness and especially the hate. He used his powers
for good. And he populated his fantastical landscapes with Southern artists -- not just the
Truckers, but Hank Williams, the Allmans, Skynyrd, Gram Parsons, and so many anonymous
troubadours who strummed guitars for the same reasons he wielded a brush.

To have his image on my book, binding my words, is an honor | can't quite find any words to
express. The writing process was filled with so many doubts, so many uncertainties and a
whole lot of wondering whether or not | was capable of doing justice to my subject. But he was
so generous when we talked on the phone, and when I finally saw the image he donated, it
made me feel legit. It was overwhelming. It made me feel like a real writer. I never got to tell
him how much that image and all of his work meant to me, precisely because | always thought I
would have the time. His art has meant the world to me as much as the Truckers' music has
meant to me, and it will continue to inspire me and I'm sure many others even now that he's gone.

Dunno what changed, but they were as good if not better than ever last night. That is, they're always good, but last night was them at their best. Tonight I get to see them again at a club smaller than anything they've played in maybe a decade.

This band is so goddamn good. Can I just say, there is literally nothing better than seeing one of your favorite bands play at a tiny club down the street, with an open bar, all you can eat pulled pork, standing next to the president of the Illinois State Senate and rocking out to Buttholeville, All in service of raising enough money to provide 500,000 meals to the hungry.

i havent seen them live in almost 10 years, i definitely need to correct that

https://i.imgur.com/NBy5HNl.jpg

who are the dudes on the left?