Drive-By Truckers

Southern Rock Opera - (Lost Highway)

Exploring the "duality of the southern thing" as the Drive-By Truckers put forth on Southern Rock Opera may sound like an exercise in a sentimental nostalgia, but that simply isn't the case. Instead, Southern Rock Opera - yes, it is a rock opera - is a heartfelt

tribute to southern rock and its southern identity. Specifically, it's a love letter to Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The story told on Southern Rock Opera alternates from the viewpoint of a young man hungry to start a band to the exploits of Skynyrd themselves. This is meant to be taken quite literally as songs like Ronnie And Neil are about Ronnie Van Zandt and Neil

Young, Cassie's Brother is about Skynyrd guitarist Steve Gaines, and Life In A Factory is almost a direct reading of a Skynyrd bio. How badly do we need this? At first glance, we might think that we could live without it. The greatest strength here, though, is

that Drive-By Truckers convince us otherwise. It's important to them, and they succeed in making it important to us.

Southern Rock Opera is essentially about escapism - a thirst for the freedom that comes with rock and roll and it's good times. Let There Be Rock is probably the most effective telling of live rock excitement as your likely to hear (admittedly, few touch on this

topic!) right down to it's namedropping of bands ranging from Blue Oyster Cult to Molly Hatchet. Musically, the Drive-By Truckers nail down their brand of electric boogie on tracks like Guitar Man Upstairs and Shut Up And Get On The Plane (adding a haunting

quality to the song actually - since we know what happened at the end of that trip).

Then there's another side to Southern Rock Opera , and it can be credited with much of the success here. The band offers their take on growing up in the south and it's "duality" - and it makes up for a side to Southern Rock Opera as dark as the Skynyrd

tragedy. There's the attention paid to George Wallace on both Wallace and The Three Great Alabama Icons and his impact on the rest of the country's view of southern culture. There's Day Of Graduation and it's legend of Free Bird playing on a car stereo as

people investigate a car wreck. These are delivered in a starker style, with deep chords resonating in the mix.

Imagery as powerful as this wouldn't really amount to much, though, if it wasn't for the fact that Drive-By Truckers attack the project with a profound efficiency. The guitars are loud and way out front, as with much of the music being paid tribute to here, and

the vocals always demonstrate just how personal the subject matter is. There's a hardly a moment to take lightly through the twenty tracks here.

Southern Rock Opera is an accomplishment that can't be overstated. The Drive-By Truckers offer an ambitious project and come up confident and assured throughout - and the quality shows. The band can be rest assured that they've done their heroes proud.

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