Drive-By Truckers return with their 10th studio album, The Big To-Do, and they've managed to bring back some of the rawk. I gotta be honest. After the last two studio releases, I was pretty sure my torrid love affair with the band was in its setting sun. Seemed marriages, kids, label disputes and time had worn the edge off the band, and I really wasn't digging their new direction very much. That feeling was reinforced when "The Fine Print" came out and I was reminded about how good the band had been and how subpar I felt the last two albums were. Then I read somewhere that Patterson said the new album was gonna be a "return to rock" and despite myself, I started looking forward to the release of The Big To-Do.
So, I guess the big question is, "Is it the return to rock the band promised?" The best answer I can come up with is, "That depends on your reference point." I mean, it's not the rock record that SRO, Decoration Day or The Dirty South were, but when set alongside A Blessing and A Curse and Brighter Than Creations Dark, it's rock n' roll side is undeniable and quite welcome.
This article appears in Mar 10-16, 2010.