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PHOTO BY FRANK HAMRICK
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3y VwPm-3y Truclm
A thens' own bunch of rowdy, wild-eyed country boys, the Drive-
By Truckers, are back in town after spending the better part of
the summer bringing the glory of neo-Southern rock to the
masses of the Great American West The band hit Texas and the
Northwest on an ear-blistering, amplifier-shattering, three-month
tour that included 72 shows in 90 days, 22,000 miles and only
Si,000 in van reoair.
"We've got to the point where what was hard two years ago is
easy now," Trucker frontman Patterson Hood says. "Any time it's not
the motor or the transmission, I just take it in stride."
With the van and the band rocking along, the Truckers made
quite a splash with the folks out West, playing to rave reviews and
enthusiastic audiences. Hood says he was surprised at how many
people were familiar with the band's music, citing advance word
from the Internet as the pied piper's calL
"I wasn't sure how it would be received, really; they've had that
hippie shit shoved down their throats so long," he laughs. "We
found a lot of people who were hungry for good ol' redneck
Southern rock." Actually, the Truckers are still on that tour... sort
of. After this week's show at the 40 Watt, the band will be going up
the East Coast for a short jaunt with like-minded Denton, Texas,
outfit Slobberbone, before returning to Athens for a mid-August
show that features both bands. Hood says he hopes the band can
take September off to work on its third studio album, the Lynyrd
Skynyrd-inspired concept album Betamax Guillotine after an "album
release party" in early September for the soon-to-be-released live
album Alabama Ass-Whuppin'.
“Ass-Whuppin' is my favorite record we've done so far, and it's
turned out beyond my best hopes," Hood says. "It actually sounds
pretty good performance-wise, and it's so loud and belligerent it
makes the Replacements fan in me happy. As for Betamax, we're
readv to do it. We were ready to do it last year."
As everyone knows, the Drive-By Truckers is the brainchild of
Hood, a native of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and old running partner,
guitarist and snappy dresser Mike Cooley. The pair had played in a
number of bands, notably Adam's House Cat, before relocating to
Athens and forming the Truckers in 1996. Members came and went
before the band settled into its most solid lineup to date, which
features the talents of bassist Rob Malone and drummer Brad
Morgan. With the membership changes came a change in sound,
from twangy alt-country to the, as one wag put it, "white trash
Clash" we all know and love.
"Everything's going really well right now; the chemistry is really
clicking," Hood says about the band's current state. "We're rocking
out; crowds are enjoying it and we're all having a blast. We're just
ready to go wherever it takes us."
Matt Thompson
WHO: The Drive-By Truckers, Urban Henry
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Friday, July 28
HOW MUCH: $5
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