| 2002 saw
Drive By Truckers gain national distribution for their brilliant, critically acclaimed 2CD masterpiece
Southern Rock Opera with it's re-release on
Lost Highway Records. Southern Rock Opera deals with Southern
culture, people's perception of Southern stereotypes, and
Lynyrd Skynyrd and their relationship with
Neil Young, which can be seen as a microcosm for what
Patterson Hood
refers to as the duality of the "Southern
Thing", back when, to quote DBT, "dinosaurs still roamed the earth"
Young's
song Southern Man with it's portrayal of a racist South inspired Skynyrd's
Sweet Home Alabama. Tragically, 3 members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, leader
Ronnie Van Zant and brother and sister
Steve and
Cassie Gaines
died in a plane crash on 10/20/77. Still, Lynyrd Skynyrd carried the cross of Southern Rock
through the seventies and beyond. Though most of the band members hailed from the South, and in particular Florida, Ronnie Van Zant's brilliant lyrics addressed universal common man issues more so than any
issues peculiar to or indigenous to the South. Drive by Truckers literate, evocative lyrics are,
on the other hand, deeply steeped in Southern culture.
While a great deal of the motivation for the present incarnation of Lynyrd Skynyrd might be perceived as coming from the mighty dollar, Drive by Truckers seem to be truly inspired and impassioned by their Southern roots and have received standing ovations while opening for the present day Skynyrd.
Patterson Hood
is the son of Lynyrd Skynyrd session bassist
David Hood, part of the rhythm section immortalized in Skynyrd's
Sweet Home Alabama - "in Muscle Shoals they got the swampers." Hood is the rhythm guitarist and main singer songwriter, although he seems to have a sort of Jagger/Richards thing going on with lead guitarist
Mike Cooley. The 3 guitar attack is filled out by recent addition
Jason Isbell who takes lead vocals on 1 song and backing vocals on quite a few others.
And while Ronnie Van Zant's stage presence was low key and possessed a dignity matched only by
Muddy Waters, Patterson Hood seems to be having more fun
on stage than anyone I've ever seen. Playing his guitar lifted up to
the
Heavens or flailing away on his guitar while on his knees, he seems to be grinning from ear to ear on every song.
The DBTs closed out 2002 with shows at
Schuba's in Chicago on New Years Eve and the night before.
The first night started with a slow burning version of
Birmingham, a Cliff Notes condensation of the last 50 years of
Southern culture, warts and all. It starts out chronicling troubled times, "Economics shut the furnace down, Bull Connor hosing children down, George Wallace stared them Yankees down, In Birmingham". But, in the end,
it is clear that Birmingham is part of Hood's heritage and it is experiencing a rebirth. "Magic City's magic getting stronger, Dynamite Hill ain't on fire any longer, No man should ever feel he don't belong in Birmingham, Birmingham".
The band was razor
sharp from the start. Interlocking guitar riffs and Mike Cooley and
Jason
Isbell trading off leads. Hood finished a vocal and grabbed a cigarette out of Isbell's mouth and started smoking
while Isbell took a turn on vocals, then finished and grabbed the cigarette back from Hood's mouth.
Early in the set the band also played the opening song on Southern Rock Opera, the spoken word
Graduation Day, a song about a high school car wreck, which along with the Skynyrd plane crash frames Southern Rock Opera in the typical operatic theme of death. With dark humor, it also sets the stage for SRO's Lynyrd Skynyrd theme: "When the ambulance came, the paramedics could hear
Freebird still playing on the radio, you know it's a very, very long song."
Like Skynyrd, DBT has a 3 guitar attack with
Cooley and Isbell on lead and Hood on rhythm. Like Skynyrd they avoid
long indulgent solos. Skynyrd was a great concert band and played with a lot of energy and passion, but it seemed that Ronnie Van Zant had every note planned out beforehand, which didn't leave
a lot of room for improvisation. Although Drive by Truckers may lack the individual virtuosity of an
Allen Collins, they make up for it by playing with a perfect sense of timing and a spontaneous, glorious, sloppy abandon. After a couple of Patterson Hood songs Mike Cooley took lead vocals on
Mean Old Highway. "Don't know why they even bother putting this highway on the map. Everybody that's ever been on it knows exactly where they're
at. Hell on both ends of it. And no where's in between. And this
highway's mean". If Patterson Hood's voice is reminiscent of a gravel voiced
Don Henley, Cooley's deep voice is a smoother whiskey soaked
Johnny Cash and provides a nice contrast to Hood's. Cooley finishes his vocal and lets go with a melodious guitar solo perfectly entwined with the towering majestic rhythm guitar accompaniment.
The Chicago Reader wrote that "it takes the DBTs a half hour to get warmed up before turning into the best rock and roll machine that they'd seen in a decade".
Hmmm...I thought they were razor sharp and inspired from the start,
and at the 30 minute mark they hit us with a powerful and absolutely transcendent version of
Ronnie and Neil which was greeted by clenched fists pumping
in the air and furiously bobbing heads! The clean powerful guitar interplay took this
jam way over the top with Hood's impassioned singing of lyrics juxtaposing the racial violence in Alabama with
Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett working in harmony with white musicians and technicians at the Muscle Shoals recording studios.
Then, transposing to Skynyrd working at Muscle Shoals, and their misunderstood relationship with Neil Young which ended up with "Neil Young wrote
Powderfinger for Skynyrd to record, but Ronnie ended up singing Sweet Home Alabama to the Lord. Ronnie and Neil, Ronnie and Neil, Rock stars today ain't half as real, Speaking their minds on how they feel. Let them guitars blast for Ronnie and Neil"
Tonight we got an ad-lib version of
The 3 Alabama Icons which live is as powerful as any music I've
ever heard with slowly building melodious guitar interplay backing
Patterson Hoods brilliant spoken word lyrics. The studio version lyrics
about Bear Bryant, the great Alabama football coach were
replaced with a primal scream of "I hate football", followed by a
monologue about Hood delivering pizzas during the Auburn-Alabama game and
not getting any tips. |
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The lyrics "Sweet Home Alabama was one of
Neil Young's favorite songs" were replaced by "Neil Young was driving
on the highway near Santa Monica when this redneck voice came on the radio
and said turn it up so Neil reached over and turned it up and then they
started singing and Neil heard his name and he liked the song even more."
The song then lashes into
George Wallace
who started out a liberal, then backed
segregation for political expediency, then became progressive again.
Then, it slowly builds to a crescendo with Hood bellowing over the guitars
"and George Wallace is in Hell now", then winds down with some black humor
"this next song takes place in hell while the devil is preparing for the
arrival of his new guest, but lucky for him the devil is also a
southerner...." Then as on the CD,
the 3 Alabama Icons transitioned into the loping blues shuffle
Wallace, which describes the Devil getting ready to welcome his
new guest. This band deals with some very serious issues, but they also
may have the best dark sense of humor in rock since
Frank Zappa. Since it was
the Christmas season they played a twisted Christmas Carol While Santa's
Coming Down the Chimney I'll be Having Sex with Mrs. Claus.
They ended the set with the uplifting Let There Be Rock, their anthem to the joys of 70's arena rock with Hood punctuating the lyrics with a fist in the air. The
tune ended with the bass player and 3 guitarists standing in a row at the very front edge of the stage playing their asses off like Lynyrd Skynyrd would do while ending their concerts with Freebird. "And I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd, but I sure saw Molly Hatchet, With 38 Special and the Johnny Van Zant Band...And I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd, but I sure saw AC/DC, With Bonn Scott singing Let their be Rock Tour, With Bonn Scott singing Let there be Rock, With Bonn Scott singing Let there be Rock."
There was a long ovation which included a fan jumping on stage to lead the crowd in a chant of
DBTs!!! DBTs!!! When the band came back onstage for its encores we got a few words about
Joe Strummer,
the leader of The Clash
who had just passed away, with the band raising bottles of Jack Daniels and cans of Hamm's beer in a toast.
Then so as not to get TOO depressing, another toast to
Bo Diddley
since it was his birthday. Then came a few words about how
much they like Chicago...how people here don't laugh at Jason Isbell when he
asks
for "Sweet Tea", (they may not have it, but at least he doesn't get funny looks). Cooley complemented
Schuba's Harmony Grill for making cornbread without inordinate amounts of sugar. They said they loved the Bears and the Super Bowl Shuffle and William Perry must be in paradise because they saw
him on a TV show and all he does now is fish all the time!
Women Without Whiskey, with Cooley on lead vocals, was the first song of the encore
- another beautiful Cooley melody on a slow ballad. The lyrics describe a drinker's relationship with whiskey and in the end if it comes to a choice between
women and whiskey "Whiskey is hard to beat". The 2nd and final song of
the encore was dedicated to Eddie Hinton, an underrated Muscle Shoals blues artist.
This was a 2 hour and 20 minute Rock and Roll blitzkrieg. A great live band playing superb material in a small club with a great sound system. It
doesn't get any better than this!
All too soon I'll be seeing the Stones
at
the United Center in $350 seats on Keith Richard's side and for me it's worth every penny, but the Drive by Truckers were just as much fun. The 2nd night
at Schuba's was New Year's Eve and we got a completely different selection of songs. Hood traded in his flannel shirt for a red Guy Lombardo dinner jacket and Cooley traded his bottle of Jack Daniels for a bottle of champagne. While
the previous night Mike Isbell was doing the lion's share of the slide playing, tonight Mike Cooley would. The DBTs rang in the new year with
Let There Be Rock with the crowd pumping their fists in the air. That may have been the only song off of Southern Rock Opera that was played both nights. Southern Rock Opera ends with 5 songs about Skynyrd, none of which were played the first night.
Kelly Hogan plays the part of Cassie Gaines on the studio version of "Cassie's Brother". Patterson said they would have liked to have had her up on stage to sing it; but she was in Atlanta. "Chicago is more like the South than Atlanta" said Hood. So, we didn't get the first 2 of the 5 songs from the Skynyrd song cycle that closes out SRO. No
Cassie's Brother or Working in a Factory. But we
did get Shut up and Get on the Plane with Hood and Mike Cooley playing furiously fast speed metal rhythm guitar on a song about the band convincing Cassie Gaines to sell her commercial airline ticket and ride on the ill-fated plane. Next came the equally fast paced
Greenville to Baton Rouge which finds Skynyrd reflecting on how great the
Street Survivors tour has been "Street Survivors, Feeling no pain, A little more rock, A little less cocaine".
Then the pastoral, dreamlike Angels and Fuselage
which featured some beautiful guitar work from Jason Isbell using an E-bow
for increased sustain: "Looking out the window, The trees are getting closer it
seems,
Thinking about you darling, Adding up the cost of these dreams. And I'm scared shitless of what's coming next, Scared shitless, These angels I see
in the trees are waiting for me." Jason held his guitar in the air with
one hand on the neck as the last long note of Angels and Fuselage played out while the band reached out from the stage and shook hands with members
of the audience. No encores tonight... after a song with such devastating emotional
impact, how could anyone continue to play?
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