Drive-By Truckers

The Dirty South - (New West)

It's a world where nature is in revolt, lawmen make a hard life harder, loneliness tears you up inside, and loved ones pass away amidst a world that doesn't seem to offer the dignity it should.

On the bright side, it's a world where Johnny Cash is still alive.

Such themes hang like a dark cloud over The Dirty South, the latest by Drive-By Truckers - a band that has been on a remarkable "roll" since their defining Southern Rock Opera and it's stellar follow-up Decoration Day. The Drive-By Truckers keep their

momentum going throughout all fourteen tracks on The Dirty South. This uncanny ability seems to be the result of a number of things - but notably that they have three strong songwriters who follow the cardinal rule of writing about what they know. This is a

band that lacks pretension to the point where you sometimes feel that you're privy to something that you shouldn't be.

As they've done before, Drive-By Truckers adopt a storytelling approach that offer a view from another side. Sure, by calling this The Dirty South and again using the talents of Wes Freed for the cover art would make you think that this is purely a "dark" side.

Not entirely true in and of itself. It's a world where people do what they can to get along with the hand they've been dealt. It's a "human" side.

If there's a dominant presence on The Dirty South, it's the picture that Patterson Hood paints of the legendary lawman Buford T. Pusser (of Walking Tall fame), telling another side of the story. The notion that Pusser's motives and methods are above reproach

are genuinely offensive to Hood, and he lays it all on the line on "The Buford Stick" and "The Boys From Alabama". He's not playing the devil's advocate here, either. Thanks to the evocative music backing it up and his convincing scratchy vocal, he manages to

win you over with little persuasion.

Hood's characters and true-life stories often centre on real victims - real victims of cruelty, miscarriages of justice, and even nature (as in the hauntingly beautiful "Tornadoes" - and I'm serious when I refer to the music here as being beautiful and hypnotic).

"Puttin' People On The Moon" is perhaps the most universal them here, since many have questioned the skewed priorities of governments and corporations and the inevitable suffering that it leads to. Hood saves the ultimate victim for his final song of the set -

himself. "Lookout Mountain" finds him wondering about a world left behind after taking his own life - not in any phony grand scheme, but to the point of wondering who'll mow the cemetery lawn and pay credit card bills.

Jason Isabel offers his finest material yet here in both "The Day John Henry Died", daring to touch on a legend already immortalized in song, and "Danko/Manuel", daring to title a song after the two departed members of the legendary Band. Isabel and the band

display a great degree of sensitivity on both songs here, with the melodic "The Day John Henry Died" a sharp contrast to the more sparse "Danko/Manuel". Things continue to get personal with "Goddamn Lonely Love", the closing number here.

The Dirty South also contains the finest yet from Mike Cooley. His opening "Where The Devil Don't Stay" sets the tone for the steady rock and roll here (by the way, play The Dirty South loud or don't bother). "Cottonseed" is really a one-man show where Cooley

not only shows his lyrical ability, but his guitar playing prowess as well. He also may have written the definitive tribute to Sun Records in "Carl Perkins' Cadillac" - where the references to Sam Phillips and his roster will bring a smile to your face. Even more

powerful is how the song bridges a similarity to The Drive-By Truckers themselves. The similarity is the respect for honesty in a business that dives deeper and deeper in the other direction. (Incidentally, this was written before Phillips and Johnny Cash died,

hence the reference to a Cash that is still with us earlier.)

Indeed, integrity is everything to the Drive-By Truckers and there's plenty of that here, not only in the songs' subject matter but in their playing as well. The Dirty South is their "heaviest" sounding album, with Hood, Cooley, and Isabel playing their guitars as if

their lives depended on it. It wouldn't mean much if it wasn't anchored by drummer Brad Morgan and new bassist Shonna Tucker. Producer David Barbe also deserves credit here, for giving the band a sound that complements their dedication so sensitively.

The Drive-By Truckers are setting a standard. I'm not going to suggest that they're so talented that all their accomplishments must come easily because these songs are clearly labours of love - ranging from being self-theraputic to tribute where they feel its

deserved. They probably could just spit out a CD that would likely find plenty of favour, but they would perceive that as being dishonest.

Rock and roll means too much to them to treat it so frivolously. That's why we've ended up with The Dirty South which, for

all it's tragedy, still houses a profound hope that singing about it might make everything all better.

9.0