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cut "When A Man Loves a Woman," and where
Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, and countless
others recorded some of the more seminal R&B
and rock records of the 1960s and 70s. Hood says
his parents were "considered hippies by the
locals" — his dad wore a beard, rode a big bike,
and had an "Impeach Nixon" sticker on his car.
(His father's still playing: word is he may play
bass on the next Flat Duo Jets record.)
But Patterson also spent much of his child
hood with his great uncle, a shy man and a World
War II vet who made his livelihood on the road,
driving a truck. Patterson spent most of his week
ends on his great uncle's farm Between this exis
tence and the rock and roll life of
his father. Hood says, "I grew up
with a pretty clear view of both
sides of the generation gap."
Patterson Hood started writing
songs when he was 8 years old. He
says you can see it that year on his
report card: it was the year he went
from A/B student to C/D student.
Once he got started, that's about all
he did: he claims he wrote more
than 1.000 songs before he even
got into high school. In 1985, he
met current Truckers guitarist Mike
Cooley at the University of North
Alabama. The two formed the nucle
us of the band Adam's House Cat;
from here, Patterson was not long
for college. "I was writing record
reviews for the university newspa
per," he recalls, "When I got ahold
of a copy of Tim by The
Replacements. I loved it so much I
decided to drop out of school. It
sounded like shit... but I figured if
they could do it, I could do it."
The band lasted about six years.
"We probably tried to deny our envi
ronment in Adam's Housecat," Hood
says. "That was me being lv and
wanting to get the hell out of town,
fighting that hght and losing it. We
were trying to deny our Southernness, though we
were Southern as hell."
Such denial is no problem for the Drive-By
Truckers. Of Jim Stacy's cover image. Hood's wife
Donna Jane says, "Those kinds of images are dis
appearing, because people water them down to
sell a product in the Midwest, which I think is
really sad. That's why the cover has such a soft
spot in my heart. If people don't get it. well..."
She trails off. Patterson continues. "I think the
picture is very accurate. It's exact. That was the
Picking up a copy of The Drive-By Truckers'
recently released debut CD Gangstabilly induces an
immediate reaction. It may be shock, dismay, dis
comfort. laughter, offense, a sense of familiarity...
but you will certainly react.
On the cover is a drawing by Athens artist Jim
Stacy of a skinny, possibly unemployed probable
redneck sitting on the hood of his car, clutching
what we assume is a PBR, a pack of menthols at
the ready. On his lap is his girl, looking to be a
few years his senior, quite possibly a beautician.
Our protagonist's hand is slowly creeping up her
thigh.
This image is as familiar to Southerners as the
changing of the seasons — or, bet
ter, a dusty television with rabbit
ears flickering with the NASCAR race
on a Saturday afternoon. It speaks
of trailer parks. Linoleum. Dusters
up on blocks in the front yard. Bug
lights sizzling on front porches as
evening fades. Corn bread. Waffle
House. Long forgotten two-ianers
built by the WPA. Rebel flags.
Stuckey's. A South that is constantly
informed and haunted by ghosts
that its movers and shakers would
like you and the rest of the world to
forget.
If you scan Gangstabilly's scng
titles — "Wife Beater," "The Living
Bubba," Buttholeville" — you might
be led to believe that the record
conjures those ghosts to mock
them. This notion, however, lasts as
long as it takes to hit the play but
ton. From the speakers, an almost
unbearably sincere, whiskey-
breathed voice reminds a woman of
her love story, about how some guy
swept her off her feet. Then, he
sings:
"...one night he's drmkin/and in
jealousy and rage/he knocked out
two oj your front teeth./So you come
over/to hide out at my place/ I
guess 1 should have killed him there and then."
BUTTHOLE¥IIiIiE
The South, and probably everywhere else for
that matter, is dotted with clubs routinely packed
with folks who simply need the familiarity of their
favorite old hits of yesteryear, performed by well-
meaning, well-traveled bands or guys with
acoustic guitars. Nothing wrong with that. But
the r ongs written by Patterson Hood, the 34-year-
old voice of The Drive-By Truckers, require a bit
more. Always have.
"My old band Adam's House Cat," he offers,
"played to empty clubs for six years. Six years.
That's a long fucking time. To never have any evi
dence of any kind of appeal outside of 20 or so
folks... come on. There was nowhere to play in our
hometown, so almost every show was two to three
hours away. There was that group of people who
were heavily into the band who would make the
two-hour drive, but it wasn't easy. For any of us.
That's what the song "Buttholeville" is about."
When Patterson sings, "Tired of livin' in
Buttholeville," on this independently-released CD,
it's funny. But it's also desperate, and it's also
true.
Steer Patterson Hood away from talking about
movies ("I'm probably more influenced by cinema
than anything in music." he'll laugh during our
conversation), and you'll find that his songs are
reflections of his memories of growing up.
Talk about the soul scene back in the 1960s
and 70s in his home town of Muscle Shoals Ala.,
and he'll get on the subject of the late Eddie
Hinton, a bnlliant singer/songwnter/instrumen
talist from those parts who informed Hood's elegy
"Sandwiches For The Road."
He'll tell you how the song "Steve McQueen"
manages to tie up a few bawdy insights into the
career of a largely misunderstood actor with
remembrances of both racing go-carts in the
Alabama heat and Hood's late grandfather.
Get on the subject of mothers and their partic
ular importance to the Southern family, and you
might find Patterson quoting "18 Wheels Of Love"
— more or less a steadfast account of his mom's
second marriage to a truck driver named Chester.
Pieces of a life are condensed into three min
utes and a series of ringing guitar chords.
Removing the songwriter from the song, at least
in this case, is next to impossible.
Which brings you back to the redneck on the
cover of Gangstabilly. sitting on the hood of his
muscle car. If it is an image meant to mock, it’s
not one that Hood discovered as a cloistered sub
urbanite while watching "Dukes of Hazzard"
reruns. Patterson's father, bassist David Hood. 56.
was one of the key session musicians who made
up the legend of Muscle Shoals, that cheaper-
than-Memphis Southern Mecca where Percy Sledge
r *
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