The most important Southern rock band to emerge in decades, the Drive-By Truckers suffered a pretty serious blow when singer/songwriter and guitarist Jason Isbell split to pursue a solo career last year. Original Truckers Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, though, picked up the slack, penning a fine batch of material for Brighter Than Creation's Dark, released in January. As on previous releases, the Athens band paints poignant pictures of small town and working-class struggles over a sonic thrust that splits the difference between Skynyrd and Uncle Tupelo. Over a steady rolling rhythm punctuated with banjo and stately piano, Hood touchingly details a deceased father's life on "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife." Backed by blazing guitars, Cooley brilliantly captures the frustration of a musician who missed his chance at rock 'n' roll stardom on "Self-Destructive Zone." And the Crazy Horse-style rocker "The Man I Shot" finds Hood offering a gripping, first-person account of an Iraq war vet grappling with the vivid memory of a battlefield killing. More than a decade into an illustrious career and minus a key member, the Drive-By Truckers remain as relevant as ever, creating timeless songs that hold their own with most anything in the alt-country or classic-rock canon.
This article appears in May 14-20, 2008.