DBT Albums Week 9 -- Brighter Than Creation's Dark

[RevMatt]

3DD friends, I decided to take a different approach to reviewing Drive By Trucker's music. Like most people here, I usually focus on the lyrics. However, for a change I decided to write an article that focuses more on the music and the overall sound of a Drive By Truckers album.

Brighter Than Creation’s Dark

1."Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife" (Hood) - 3:05
2."3 Dimes Down" (Cooley) - 3:19
3."The Righteous Path" (Hood) - 4:13
4."I'm Sorry Huston" (Tucker) - 3:11
5."Perfect Timing" (Cooley) - 2:58
6."Daddy Needs a Drink" (Hood) - 3:48
7."Self Destructive Zones" (Cooley) - 4:12
8."Bob" (Cooley) - 2:15
9."Home Field Advantage" (Tucker) - 5:01
10."Opening Act" (Hood) - 6:48
11."Lisa's Birthday" (Cooley) - 3:19
12."The Man I Shot" (Hood) - 6:03
13."Purgatory Line" (Tucker) - 3:48
14."The Home Front" (Hood) - 3:18
15."Checkout Time in Vegas" (Cooley) - 2:41
16."You and Your Crystal Meth" (Hood) - 2:19
17."Goode's Field Road" (Hood) - 5:28
18."A Ghost to Most" (Cooley) - 4:41
19."Monument Valley" (Hood) - 4:33

Produced, Engineered and Mixed by David Barbe at Chase Park Transduction Studios, Athens GA. June - September 2007 on glorious 2" analog tape.
Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound NYC.

DBT-8:
Mike Cooley, Patterson Hood, Brad Morgan, John Neff, and Shonna Tucker
With special guest: Spooner Oldham

Also appearing: David Barbe, Will Johnson and Scott Danbom

Additional Engineering - Andy LeMaster
Assistant Engineers - Billy Bennett, Ben Holst, Drew Vandenberg, Brannen Miles, Mark Brut

Art Direction - Lilla Hood
Artwork and Paintings - Wes Freed at Willard's Garage, Richmond VA
Willards Garage maintained by Jyl Freed
Photography - Jason Thrasher

Chase Park Interns - Laura Conroy, Ben Dasher, David Franklin

This album is lovingly dedicated to our dear friend and collaborator Spooner Oldham.

I Hear You Talking When I'm On The Street

Brighter Than Creation’s Dark is Drive By Truckers’ Exile on Main Street.

The Rolling Stones’ 1972 album is the embodiment of one of the great rock and roll myths; that after a decade of sustained success the best path for a rock band caught in the artistic doldrums is to shed the accumulated bullshit, sequester itself, strip down and return to its roots. This process, as the myth proclaims, allows the band to find something raw and elemental in the riffs that harkens back to their earliest days together. The finished record would be less polished than other recent efforts but embedded in its simplicity would be the bare essentials of a band’s identity.

This myth first took root in 1967 when Bob Dylan, still recuperating from his motorcycle crash a year earlier, wandered into the basement of the pink house and laid down song after song, shedding the “voice of a generation” albatross that had been sucking the joy out of making music and rediscovering the very impulses that in 1961 led him to hitchhike from Minneapolis to New York in search of Woody Guthrie. The Beatles later attempted this in 1969 with Get Back, originally conceived as a concert/ live album of entirely new material. Four years after their last concert performance The Beatles would “get back” to their roots as a live rock and roll act. They even went as far as to recreate the cover photo from their first album. Get Back was a failure but two years later The Rolling Stones would produce one of rock music’s most iconic albums by stripping down and getting back to their musical roots as English interpreters of American rock and roll, soul, rhythm and blues, blues and other roots oriented music.


Something's Gotta Give
By April 2007 Drive By Truckers had been touring heavily for close to a decade, playing over 100 shows every year since 1999. In 2002 they achieved “national act” status when they first started headlining places like New York’s Bowery Ballroom and Los Angeles’ House of Blues. Drive By Truckers had established themselves as recording artists in the post-Napster age. Success, however, had taken its toll on the band. To understand the position Drive By Truckers found themselves in early 2007 one must go back to Drive By Truckers very formation.

In 1996 Patterson Hood had been living in Athens, Georgia for two years, working as a sound man in numerous clubs and networking among the community of transplanted musicians. He had deep roots in northern Alabama where he, Mike Cooley and Chris Quillen formed their first professional band, Adam’s House Cat. With their Paul Westerberg inspired left of the dial post punk/alternative rock, Adam’s House Cat flirted with indie notoriety before breaking up in the early nineties.



The breakup of a musician’s first great band can be a traumatic experience not unlike a divorce. Dark days often follow. Those whose careers continue are the ones who, once the clouds dissolve, are able to take an honest look at the shortcomings of that first band and learn from the experience. One of the conclusions Hood came to about Adam’s House Cat is that the band did not take full advantage of Mike Cooley’s love of country music and his idiosyncratic finger picking on the acoustic guitar, banjo and mandolin. His next project would be a musical partnership where Cooley could truly shine; a loose, stripped down, hard rocking, countrified punk band that was not afraid to break out the banjos, acoustic guitars, upright bass and brushes when the songs called for it. The song, “Bulldozers and Dirt” was, in part, an invitation to Cooley and Quillen to join forces with Hood and his Athens friends in this new band.


In the decade that followed this original vision for Drive By Truckers was obscured by a number of factors. First, by 2001 the main focus of the live show was the “three guitar attack” and a sound that was more Skynryd, Crazy Horse and The 'Mats at their most raukus than Hank Williams or Eddie Hinton. Truckers shows were loud, loose and rocked hard. When it came to flirting with the ledge that threatened to send them towards a Replacements style alcohol fueled train wreck they were fearless and, unlike the 'Mats, The Truckers rarely tumbled over that precipice.

Second, Jason Isbell, the young musician who replaced Rob Malone as the third guitarist in 2001, had developed into a musical force in his own right. Not only was Isbell developing into a first rate songwriter but he had his own vision as to where he wanted to take his music. Though Isbell had no immediate plans to leave Drive By Truckers there was a sense that continuing with three major songwriters at the helm made a breakup inevitable. A year earlier, during the recording of A Blessing and a Curse, tension within the band became so great that a film crew was asked to leave the studio. Third, by 2007 Hood, Cooley and Brad Morgan had started families. Most musicians never reach the point where their bands produce enough income to support their families and being in such a position would seem like a dream come true. However, being at this level creates many complications such as balancing family life with life on the road and the sense that a musician is no longer in the position to walk away from the band at any time because he or she no longer feels personally or artistically fulfilled.

In the spring of 2007 Patterson Hood made three radical choices that would change the course of Drive By Truckers. First, Jason Isbell was asked to leave the band. Second, the upcoming tour would be performed on acoustic guitars and dubbed “The Dirt Underneath Tour.” Dewey “Spooner” Oldham would be joining the band on Wurlitzer and Hammond organ. Third, Athens based guitarist John Neff, who had played on several DBT tracks over the years and was on the band’s very first tour, would join the band as an official full-time member, taking over Jason Isbell’s spot as the third guitarist. He would also be playing pedal steel guitar.

The new direction of the band would also feature a side of Mike Cooley that the fans hadn't really seen; his appreciation for the mainstream country music of the late sixties and seventies. Cooley had several songs that were influenced by artists from that era like Dolly Parton, Tom T. Hall, Charlie Rich and a host of others whose music he'd absorbed as a child. Prior to this he didn't feel these songs were appropriate for Drive By Truckers. But on the upcoming tour he would debut songs like "Bob" and "Lisa's Birthday"; songs that recalled a musical era neglected by most so-called alt.country and Americana artists.





Got Those Fancy Road Cases

The idea of a band like Drive By Truckers -- who have probably had less than ten rehearsals over the course of their existence -- sequestering itself in some ocean front villa or band member’s basement to rediscover their essence would never work. The band’s true home had always been the road. The Dirt Underneath Tour would be Drive By Truckers summer in Nellcotte, their informal jam sessions in the basement of The Big Pink and their impromptu concert on the rooftop of The Apple Building. Armed with custom Baxendale acoustic guitars and a pile of brand new songs Drive By Truckers took to the road.

The Strings are Ringing and The Words are Rhyming

The role of master luthier Scott Baxendale in this period of Drive By Truckers’ history cannot be understated. About four years earlier Matt DeFillipis first walked into Baxendale’s Colfax Guitar Shop in Denver with three guitars that needed minor repairs. When it came time to settle up The Matador handed the luthier a handful of cash and a copy of Decoration Day. Scott Baxendale’s life was about to change. “Decoration Day just hit me totally between the eyes. I loved that album…Their music hit a chord with me that really no modern current band had.” (http://www.jambands.com/features/2011/1 ... axendale?2) This was the beginning of an artistic relationship that would come to full bloom in 2007.

Most custom guitar makers have several varieties of bodies, necks and bridges they build ahead of time and combine according to a customer’s preferences. Scott Baxendale, however, takes an entirely different approach, building each component from scratch for every customer. When he built guitars for Hood, Cooley, Neff and Isbell he first interviewed each player, asking questions like “What was your first guitar?”, “Who were your favorite players when you first learned to play?” and “When you were a teenager what was your dream guitar?” He closely studied videos of each guitarist, taking into account their strumming, finger picking styles, position of their fretting hands as they formed chords and other tendencies. By listening closely Baxendale not only became familiar with each player’s style and tone but also what types of tones worked best as the three guitarists played together. The result was several custom acoustic guitars that were both uniquely suited for each individual player and Drive By Truckers as a whole. When Drive By Truckers launched The Dirt Underneath Tour at The Georgia Theater that April Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and John Neff were all slinging Baxendales.



The Truckers played 35 shows that summer, honing more than a dozen brand new songs in an “unplugged” setting. Four separate swings brought them to cities in the south, the Rocky Mountains, the west coast and the northeast. As the band grew more comfortable in the quieter setting a new musical vibe emerged, something closer to The Stray Gators than Crazy Horse; more Harvest Moon than Ragged Glory. The similarities to Neil Young’s 1993 sequel to Harvest were not entirely coincidental. Fifteen years earlier Muscle Shoals legend Spooner Oldham had laid down Wurlitzer tracks on that record as one of The Stray Gators.

Vintage Gear

The technological advances in electronic keyboards since the 1980’s is nothing short of astounding. Computerized “work stations” that can digitally reproduce and modify every possible piano, organ or orchestral sound have become the almost ubiquitous lower rack ax for most touring musicians. For those who prefer vintage analogue sounds the Nord Electro 2 -- at less than twenty pounds -- puts a digitally sampled version of the Hammond B-3 -- with drawbars! -- the Vox Continental, the Farfisa organ, the Horner Clavinet and Pianet, the Fender Rhodes and the Wurlitzer Electronic Piano at the keyboard player’s fingertips. Yet, despite the technological sophistication of modern keyboards it is the subtle variations of a skilled piano player’s touch the that triggers the padded hammers striking the reeds. No digital work station can duplicate what Spooner Oldham can do with a vintage Wurlitzer Electronic Piano.



Spooner Oldham came of age when learning to tame shrill sounding, temperamental gear was as much a part as a keyboardist’s apprenticeship as mastering chord changes, scales and improvisation. In the 1960’s a keyboardist had three options when it came to electric pianos: Hohrner, Fender and Wurlitzer.

The Wurlitzer Electronic Piano was introduced in 1954. Five years later Ray Charles would record “What’d I Say”, doing for the “Wurly” what Buddy Holly had done for the Fender Stratocaster. The overdriven, slightly distorted sound of the hammers striking the metal reeds as Ray Charles’ left hand banged out the walking syncopated riff was characteristic of the instrument’s sound.



The reeds, however, were prone to crack or snap if the pianist hit the keys too hard, requiring a Wurly player to have a stockpile of replacements and be handy with a soldering iron and file. When played gently The Wurlitzer’s tone is closer to the vibraphone tone of the Fender Rhodes. Many keyboard players from the sixties and seventies preferred the sound of The Wurlitzer to The Fender Rhodes. However, the latter instrument’s sturdy tuning forks would not snap no matter how hard it was played, making The Rhodes a more reliable choice for the working and touring musician.



That Sweet Warm Hum

When Drive By Truckers entered David Barbe’s Chase Park Transduction Studios in September to lay down the tracks for their next album Spooner Oldham elected to play a vintage gear in an old school, analog setting. His approach to the new songs was more like an acoustic guitar player fingering deceptively easy chords, patterns and runs in the space provided than a piano player banging out chords in the upper octaves. He played the Wurlitzer gently and the vibraphone like tone achieved by this approach was perfect for the musical tapestry woven by the Baxendales and John Neff’s pedal steel guitar. All this was supported by the rhythm section of Shonna Tucker and Brad Morgan.

The quality of a rhythm section is something that cannot be defined on the same terms as a singer or lead guitarist. Rock and roll, at its very essence, is the interplay between the bass, drums and rhythm guitar. It is more about feel than manual dexterity, quality of tone or range. Inventiveness is important but cleverness for its own sake can doom a rhythm section just as easily as musical incompetence or failure to swing.

The combination of custom acoustic and electric guitars, tube amps, vintage keyboards and the soul and bluegrass inspired bottom provided by the rhythm section was perfect for The Truckers’ and Barbe’s old school analog approach to recording. By tracking the record on two inch tape before mixing it down to half inch tape created a vibe throughout the record that feels as warm as sipping twenty year old scotch in front of the fireplace in a winter’s evening.

[brett27295]

When I first discovered DBT and jumped on board Brighter Than Creation's Dark had just been released. After reading about the band & checking out some music online, I purchased Decoration Day, The Dirty South, & the "new one" Brighter Than Creation's Dark. I didn't play BTCD much the first several months I had it. I ended up buying more of DBT's back catalog and still didn't give BTCD many spins. Then I started going to shows, The Big To-Do and Go Go Boots came out and BTCD just sat there unplayed and unappreciated by me.

It's only been in the past 18 months or so that I really listened to BTCD and gave it a chance. I kind of kick myself for basically ignoring this album for so long because it's fantastic. Other than the Shonna songs which I can take or leave the rest of the album blows me away. Some of my very favorite DBT songs come from this album:

1. Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife
2. 3 Dimes Down
3. The Righteous Path
4. Self Destructive Zones
5. The Man I Shot

This is an album that took a long time to grow on me, mostly because I was just discovering the band when it came out. I spent so much time catching up with their back catalog and live shows that it took me forever to give it a chance. I'm glad I finally did.

[Rocky]

I came to the Truckers late in their formation and first saw them live / joined the converted in the Spring of 2007 so this was their first new music to me. This record is filled with some classic Trucker tracks. That Man I Shot rocks so hard and is incredible musically and lyrically. A Ghost To Most is a fricking masterpiece. Goode's Field Road is a real face melter in concert, Perfect Timing is so beautiful and Monument Valley comes closest yet to a film score from Patterson.

And I think a lot of you know the story behind what inspired Patterson to write Two Daughters and A Beautiful Wife. It is a beautiful and haunting song about the most fucked up thing I can imagine. To his credit, I never once heard him announce from the stage what this song was directly about. He always just let the song speak for itself which I admire.

[Duke Silver]

Very nice writeup.

A bunch of random, disconnected thoughts about BTCD:

It wasn't the first DBT album I heard, but it was the first I bought on release day.

7 Cooley songs. Seven! Think that'll ever happen again? I sure hope so.

You could make a case for BTCD being Patterson's best overall album. The Opening Act might be my favorite song of his, Monument Valley is gorgeous, and Two Daughters is just perfect. Not to mention Daddy Needs a Drink. Only one that isn't top shelf, IMO, is The Homefront.

I prefer this primal, stomping version of Goode's Field Rd to the faster version.

Shonna gave it her best shot, but she's just not in the same league as Patterson and Cooley. Her songs haven't aged well at all for me.

With some trimming (cue Iowan) this might be my #2 DBT album, but as is TDS barely edges it out.

[RolanK]

Great Job, RevMatt.

Most days this is my favorite DBT-album.

I really dig the vibe and feel of it. The keys and the pedal steel is just beautiful. I think it sounds absolutely fabulous. Difficult to single out favorite songs; Opening Act, Daddy Needs A Drink and Two Daughters maybe. I know I've mentioned it before, but back in the mid nineties I had the pleasure of meeting Brian Harvey. They would stick around for a couple days around the venue after shows in the town I was living in at the time, we bumped into each other and chatted a few times. He came across as a very nice and down to earth guy. It took me a while after hearing that song to actually connect and realize it was about the same guy. Such a tragedy.

[Tyler]

I really like this album a lot. It was the first album released while I was "aware" of the band. Just the Patterson songs alone would make a hell of an album.

[Gaetzi]

Great write up, Matt! Man, you guys that take the time to do these must be on the payroll or something. Interesting that you compare this album to Exile. I'm not sure the circumstances were that similar but I do agree in that they're both among the best albums either band ever recorded and are both long enough that you could take the best 8-10 tracks and literally have a 'greatest hits' album.

What I really dig about BTCD is that it touches on everything that comprises the DBT sound. It's got some rockers, some more catchy and poppy songs, a bunch of acoustic stuff, some more countryish material, etc. It also has some of my favorite DBT songs: 2 Daughters, 3DD, Rightous Path, Self Destructive Zones, Ghost to Most. And Checkout Time in Vegas.. I'm not sure how you would classify that song but I love it and it fits really well into the overall feel of and flow of the album. Which in itself says a lot about BTCD.

[Clams]

Well written, thoughtful write-up. Great job, Rev.

This is the one that did it for me. Never even heard of DBT before that fateful day in Feb 2008 when I happened to hear Self Destructive Zones on XM radio while in my car. I was pretty much stopped dead in my tracks. BTCD was the first DBT record I bought and it's the only one I listened to, over and over, for about a month until I deemed myself ready to dig deeper. To this day, it still holds that special place in my heart even though I know that SRO, DD and TDS might be the superior records. I look back very fondly on those months that I spent discovering all the DBT records.

To me, BTCD is a sprawling record and I love that it's got a dark and cohesive sound. Neff's and Spooner's contributions can't be understated. As for Shonna's three songs, they don't measure up to the Hood/Cooley songs but they mostly fit the sound of the record - or at least Purgatory Line and I'm Sorry Huston do (Homefield Advantage, not so much).

Some of my favorite moments of the record:
-The quick stop ending on Righteous Path
-Shonna's vocals at the end of Opening Act
-The blistering intro on The Man I Shot
-The guitar picking on Perfect Timing

BTCD is a very visual record to me. The songs really conjure up some amazing images in my mind - speaking specifically of Perfect Timing, The Home Front, Checkout Time in Vegas, Righteous Path, Monument Valley, Lisa's Birthday, Man I Shot, Goode's Field, Self Destructive Zones. I guess I should just reference the whole damn record. The lyrics on this record, more so than any other DBT record, play out like individual film-noirs in my mind.

Phrases like "you better get yourself back on the righteous path," "I was shocked and horrified!" and "daddy needs a drink" have become commonplace around my house.

So glad I got to see a bunch of the shows from this tour too.

[LastLawson]

Very interesting write-up Rev. When I listened to BTCD the first few times, I couldn't help but think that it sounded like two albums. I tried separating the songs into two albums, but that only resulted in me realizing how well the album was laid out. But Checkout Time in Vegas would have been a better closer, IMO. Only songs I skip are Bob, Lisa's Birthday and Homefield Advantage.
My favorite part of BTCD though was the frequency of background vocals. Biggest thing I will miss about Shonna. But Cooley and Hood's backing vocals are also superb.
The Opening Act is one of Patterson's best songs in my book.

[rawkshow]

good writeup rev matt. it's kinda strange cuz I got into the band right before tds came out. I had gotten sro first & then saw them live like a week later & it was a full on rawkshow with three guitars at 10 & several bottles of whiskey consumed on stage so instantly i was hooked, esp. with the rock side of the truckers....abaac was a bit of a disappoint to me (like many others), just seemed disjointed & paled in comparison to the 3 previous albums. I had such high hopes for btcd, that it would be the return to the rock that I loved so much....so my first listen to it was, well meh, it wasn't what I wanted them to do...I was hoping for a whole album of the man I shot & instead, it was lots of country influences & subtle playing. HOWEVER, there was something that kept me going back to it, some great songs that I just couldn't get out of my head....2 daughters & a wife is a such a beautiful song, three dimes down, checkout time in vegas (one of my fav cooley songs & I love shonna's backing vocals)....and gradually I came to appreciate this album...it's not my favorite dbt album but it's still great & I have to credit it with broadening my musical tastes & realizing that the truckers are much more than just a 3 guitar headed rock monster (tho I still love it when they crank it up & let loose with lookout mtn!) one side note, does anyone else think that the man I sounds a lil out of place on btcd? I don't know when it was written or any of the history but it seems like it would've fit in better on tbtd instead...

[RevMatt]

good writeup rev matt. it's kinda strange cuz I got into the band right before tds came out. I had gotten sro first & then saw them live like a week later & it was a full on rawkshow with three guitars at 10 & several bottles of whiskey consumed on stage so instantly i was hooked, esp. with the rock side of the truckers....abaac was a bit of a disappoint to me (like many others), just seemed disjointed & paled in comparison to the 3 previous albums. I had such high hopes for btcd, that it would be the return to the rock that I loved so much....so my first listen to it was, well meh, it wasn't what I wanted them to do...I was hoping for a whole album of the man I shot & instead, it was lots of country influences & subtle playing. HOWEVER, there was something that kept me going back to it, some great songs that I just couldn't get out of my head....2 daughters & a wife is a such a beautiful song, three dimes down, checkout time in vegas (one of my fav cooley songs & I love shonna's backing vocals)....and gradually I came to appreciate this album...it's not my favorite dbt album but it's still great & I have to credit it with broadening my musical tastes & realizing that the truckers are much more than just a 3 guitar headed rock monster (tho I still love it when they crank it up & let loose with lookout mtn!) one side note, does anyone else think that the man I sounds a lil out of place on btcd? I don't know when it was written or any of the history but it seems like it would've fit in better on tbtd instead...

I was a far more recent convert to DBT than you and had to get up to speed on their history. BTCD was the current record when I started listening. I was surprised to learn that the original conception of the band was more accoustic sounding and how by the spring of 2007 that had largely gone by the wayside. One of the video clips I included was an early Athens show with Adam Howell on bass. THAT was the original vision for the band and it surprised me to learn it because, like many, I thought the three guitar attack of the Alabama Ass Whuppin' and Southern Rock Opera era was the genesis. The underlying thesis for my entire article is that The Dirt Underneath Tour and BTCD was an attempt to return to their roots.

I don't know if BTCD is my favorite Truckers album or just the one I play the most. One reason for the number of spins is that it is a good record to put on the turntable when you are having company. It is a nice sounding record with great playing all around. You don't need to be focusing on the lyrics the entire time.

[UncleFrank1990]

I first really got into DBT during my freshman year in college, here at Mizzou. This was the 2009-2010 school year, and I was living in the dorms. I got The Big To-Do, as DBT was set to play a show at the Blue Note, and I wanted to be current with their new album, their two earliest, and Southern Rock Opera followed soon after, right before the school year ended. Long story short, I had more fun in the dorms than I probably should've, and I flunked out after only one year, that said, I regret nothing from that year.

The week I got the e-mail saying that I was dis-invited for the Fall 2010 semester, I went by the local record store, the recently closed Streetside Records, picked up the re-release of Exile On Main Street, Murdering Oscar, and BTCD. Friday I got the e-mail, and didn't tell my folks until Sunday, when I was done with work for the weekend. So, on my 60 mile round trip to work that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I ran BTCD in my truck CD player constantly. Something about that resonated with my situation. I dunno what, but it did. That album means a lot to me, and I think, though it's hard to say, but I think I can say it, that BTCD is my favorite DBT album.

As for the ending of my story, I enrolled in the local community college, and got back into Mizzou for the 2011 school year, and will be graduating in Spring of 2014. For some reason, I feel like DBT deserve a big thank-you for that. So thanks, boys.

[Tequila Cowboy]

From Patterson:

Y'all,
Enjoying the album of the week club a bunch.
This week is way good.
Rev. Matt did a bang up job.
I always really enjoy his writing and viewpoints.
He's usually right (by my reckoning) and when he's not dead-on, his perspectives are well thought out and plausible.
Loved how much credit he gave Scott Baxendale and Spooner for helping us find our way through that era and that album.
Very true.

It IS a special album to me, for a multitude of reasons.
Shonna and Neff both outdid themselves on that one.
7 Cooley songs and the end of a particularly troubling dry spell for me.
Brad was really coming into his own in great ways.
I was figuring out how to do this Daddy thing and how to also do this thing I've spent m whole life trying to do.
Perhaps I was figuring out how to be happy (finally) and still feel valid as an artist.
I think Cooley was doing that also.
It wasn't the album everyone wanted us to make, but it was exactly the album we Needed to make and I'll gladly stand by it, half a decade later.

Also agreed on the Exile thing.
Obviously, the two albums are nothing alike musically, but...
both album had multiple songs that, taken alone, seem unfinished, but are part of a larger piece of a puzzle.
The Home Front is there to set up That Man I Shot.
("Bitch-slapped and abandoned" isn't a pretty thing to say, but it conjures an emotion, very fitting to the feelings of the protagonist of that song.
It's not always my job to be pretty, but it IS my job to conjure the right emotion).

Three Dimes Down sets up Self Destructive Zone.
You and Your Crystal Meth sets up Goode's Field Road.
(You should never get too poetic when talking about such a terrible drug.)
Bob is a masterful piece of writing and I still can't believe how misunderstood it was.

Two Daughters was written to try to help me figure out how to at least find a box for something so unfathomably terrible, that there's not figuring it out or getting past it.
I cut it as a demo by myself, in some fucked up tuning, no less, and we ended up using that as the take, manipulating the tape speed so that Spooner and Scott could play along to it.
It just had a feel. It's an album about feel.

It's an album about feel.

Close enough for Rock and Roll.

See Y'all at The Rock Shows and Rumbles.

[bovine knievel]

^^^^


Good job, Rev!

[Iowan]

With some trimming (cue Iowan) this might be my #2 DBT album, but as is TDS barely edges it out.

And here's where I do what I do in the BTCD threads.

Two Daughters
The Righteous Path
Three Dimes Down
Perfect Timing
Daddy Needs A Drink
Self Destructive Zones
Bob
The Opening Act
Lisa's Birthday
That Man I Shot
Goode's Field Road
A Ghost to Most

That's an album that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Holy Trinity. Top of the heap stuff.

As it stands, BTCD ranks towards the bottom of the DBT album pack for me due to the "fat". It has a lot of absolutely killer, essential DBT songs. It also has a lot of stuff that I think would have been better released as b-sides and the like. I do occasionally enjoy spinning the whole thing (long road trips, for example), but most of the time I play the cream.

[dime in the gutter]

hey motherfucker, where is checkout time in vegas?

[Clams]

It has a lot of absolutely killer, essential DBT songs. It also has a lot of stuff that I think would have been better released as b-sides and the like.

The same could also be said for the first two records, ABAAC, The Big To Do and Go Go Boots. That's just the nature of DBT records. If I had to choose, I'd prefer over-inclusive to under-inclusive b/c it means we get more. Write it, record it, release it, let the fans have it.

[Tyler]

hey motherfucker, where is checkout time in vegas?

Ok, here's where I out myself.

I don't love Checkout Time In Vegas.

I mean, I like it, I enjoyed it the two times I've seen it live, but it's never been top tier Cooley to me. Much like The Tough Sell it sort of builds up this creepy atmosphere successfully, but then doesn't really go anywhere with it.

[Duke Silver]

For anyone who hasn't seen it, here's the story behind "Checkout Time In Vegas".

Everyone heard the explosion. It sounded like someone had detonated a cherry bomb behind the apartment. A man named Bud opened the back door to see what the hell was going on.

Big mistake.
There were three of them in the parking lot, three wild men lit by the midnight moon. The tall one with the Army jacket and the crazy eyes had a twelve-gauge shotgun aimed at Bud. The other two were bleeding--one from his left arm, the other from a small wound in his left cheek, just below his eye.

They walked right into the kitchen.
One of the men flashed a badge. "DEA!" he barked. "Everybody on the floor!"
Crazy Eyes, who was calling himself David Hoffman that night, shoved his shotgun in the face of a 74-year-old woman sitting at the kitchen table. "Where's the money?" he demanded. "Where's the dope?"

The old woman, who lived in the apartment with her granddaughter and great-granddaughter, said she didn't know anything about any money or drugs. Hoffman rounded up Bud and two other guys who were visiting the women and made them lie down on the floor of the bathroom.

The man with the bloody arm, Scott Baxendale, started searching the other rooms. His good hand clutched a .357 automatic.

Keep reading:

http://www.westword.com/1998-07-09/news/bad-company/1/

[Iowan]

hey motherfucker, where is checkout time in vegas?

Great back story. Just doesn't trip my trigger, which is unfortunate being its the "title track" and all that.

The same could also be said for the first two records, ABAAC, The Big To Do and Go Go Boots. That's just the nature of DBT records. If I had to choose, I'd prefer over-inclusive to under-inclusive b/c it means we get more. Write it, record it, release it, let the fans have it.

The difference being that you couldn't pare enough fat from any of those albums to be left with an album length collection that flows and has the quality of the one I laid out a few posts up. "Fat" is subjective any how. In the immortal words of J-Roc, "that's like, another man's trizzash, know'msayn?"

[Gaetzi]

DAMN. that's an insane story. More insane that it's true, I never knew what the idea behind that tune was. Most important, great that Scott made it out of all that alive and is doing what he loves now.

[RolanK]

DAMN. that's an insane story. More insane that it's true, I never knew what the idea behind that tune was. Most important, great that Scott made it out of all that alive and is doing what he loves now.

There is more: Do it for Johnny

EDIT: Actually I think that Wikipedia article isn't quite correct. My understanding is that the screenplay is centered more on the story linked to above than Scott's "life as a guitar maker."

[Swamp]

Armed with custom Baxendale acoustic guitars and a pile of brand new songs Drive By Truckers took to the road.

The Strings are Ringing and The Words are Rhyming

Although I had been a fan since 03 and Marina since 05, we had never seen them more than twice a year.
Then in 2007 we saw them 8 times. One of those would be Jason's last show but the other 5 and a half
would be Dirt Underneath shows. Up to that point we had seen 5 & 6 Rawk shows and looked forward to
the DU shows as a chance to hear some stuff we had never got before. We weren't disappointed.
Those were some of my favorite shows. The clip above is from the 1st night of the SF shows. It was a
sit down affair with tickets being 50 bucks but that included dinner. I had the steak and Marina got the
portabella ravioli. We got our food just as the band came on stage. In the clip above you can hear the waitress
taking our drink orders just as Patterson's going into "Daddy Needs a Drink"...........Perfect timing
We got to hear a lot of BTCD and I could not wait for the album to be released and it was the first album I
ever pre ordered.

[gutshot]

My absolute favorite and I coudn't agree more with PH on this statement.

"Shonna and Neff both outdid themselves on that one."

Her backing vocals and his pedal steel on the whole album (but especially "The Opening Act"...my oh my) are second to absolutely none. To me, it's a perfect blend of everyone in the band being on top of their game. If I were a major-league baseball closer, "The Man I Shot" would be my running-out-of-the-bullpen music. Hair-raising.

[Cole Younger]

Good stuff. When btcd was released I was a little disappointed. I immediately loved a ghost to most and three dimes down and found the dark moodiness of the record interesting but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for at the time. During a phone conversation a friend of mine said "it's good but I was hoping there would be more songs of them raising hell." Verily. I struggled with a lot of this record at first.

Patterson surprised me by writing two fantastic songs on the Iraq war. The Man I Shot is perfect in the way it relates the perspective of a guy who has been there. The character in that song is given a lot of respect and I respect Patterson for doing it that way. The Homefront is a masterful piece of writing on what the families of service men and women go through.

What amazes me about this record is the way they so exactly nailed what they were trying to do. ABAAC is a really good record to me but I'm not sure they did what they set out to do. Difficult circumstances almost surely contributed to that. TBTD falls flat to me on that front. But BTCD is the true realization of a vision to me. It's amazing in that regard.

This record has aged really well for me. I have come to like it a lot.

I alSo want to give Shonna her due here. She was at her best on this record. Her playing and backing vocals are top notch. And to me Houston is a great song. I really like Homefield Advantage and on some days I really like Purgatory LIne.

And we got seven Cooley songs.

[linkous]

Was sorting through my old Uncut magazines and came across the issue that reviewed Brighter Than Creations Dark. It was the 5 star album of the month. Have uploaded it to Photobucket, and hopefully you can access the scans here http://s1382.photobucket.com/user/gryff ... t=2&page=1
There are 3 scans, the full review, a full page pic, and a Q&A with Patterson. Double click on the thumbnail, and then use the "magnifying glass" to increase or decrease the size of the page to suit.
And when you've read those you can devour all the stuff by The Fall