Having now been alerted to the existence of Drive-By Truckers, I've been going through their back catalog. I tried The Dirty South next, and was especially impressed with "Where the Devil Don't Stay." Then I got Southern Rock Opera, which seems to be their magnum opus. I can't decide whether the openness with which they wear their Lynyrd Skynyrd worship is naive, audacious, or both. It sounds to me like the musical equivalent of Babe Ruth calling his shot. Skynyrd is all over this album, but the Truckers don't suffer from the comparison.
More personally affecting is "Zip City," a song about being seventeen in a place you can't wait to leave, the climax of which is:
Keep your drawers on, girl, it ain't worth the fight By the time you drop them I'll be gone And you'll be right where they fall the rest of your life
The combination of knowingness, weariness, and regret that Mike Cooley breathes into these lines is chilling. I don't that anyone's ever quite so precisely captured how I felt about my hometown in high school.
My Trusted MOGs
These gjuys are still pretty new to me. I'm loving The Dirty South. Nice to get a taste of Southern Rock Opera. I honestly can't imagine why I like them so much; they're so southern and boy, ambassadors or red-neck (in no way pejorative) culture. Although maybe that's exactly why, the particularity of place and point of view. Every time I hear "Russelville" it gives me chills, like "I know where that is."
My Trusted MOGs
Yeah, I can't say exactly why I like them so much either, but I really do. I actually found myself browsing Lynyrd Skynyrd albums the other day thinking they might offer more of the same.
And I know what you mean about that "I know where that is" reaction. I've been having it with the Vampire Weekend album.