The mighty Drive-By Truckers will release their 12th LP, English Oceans, on March 4. This would be cause for celebration at When You Motor Away under any circumstances, but especially so here having heard an advance and able to pronounce English Oceans one of the very finest of the Truckers' career. Patterson Hood calls it "a magical record" and we agree with him. And here we just finished our Best of 2013 articles, and we already have a strong contender for best album of 2014.
We'll write a full review closer to the release date.
Meantime, you don't have to rely on me, instead let your own ears be the judge. Here's one of English Ocean's best songs, "Pauline Hawkins", written by Patterson Hood about a character from an upcoming Willy Vlautin novel. I particularly love the piano and feedback bridge at the 4:30 mark leading to the all out rock and roll finale. I cannot wait to hear this one live where the Truckers have few peers.
We are particularly fortunate here in Portland Oregon where Patterson Hood is performing three solo shows this month at the Doug Fir Lounge. Hood is a gifted songwriter and storyteller and remarkably effective in an intimate solo setting. Public service announcement: there's still time to catch him on the next 2 Wednesdays, link for ticket purchase here. Road trip anyone? Hood's performance of "The Part of Him" from English Oceans was one of the highlights of his show this past week.
The band's record label ATO issued this press release about English Oceans:
English Oceans (ATO Records)
US Release date: March 4, 2014
European release date: March 3, 2014
European release date: March 3, 2014
English Oceans, the 12th release by Athens, Georgia's Drive-By Truckers, is an elegantly balanced and deeply engaged new effort that finds the group refreshed and firing on all cylinders.
All but one of the collection's 13 new songs, written by singer-guitarists and co-founding members Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, were recorded during 13 days of sessions in August 2013 with longtime producer David Barbe.
Six of the songs were the result of a burst of writing activity by Cooley.
"I had time to write," Cooley says. "After we came off the road last time, we decided we were going to let it rest for a while. So I had time to really focus. I kind of had to re-learn how to write, because I didn't write as many songs as I'd wanted on the last couple of records. I was happy with these songs, and thrilled to go in and record so many that I felt real strongly about."
Hood notes, "I don't think we've ever had a record where Cooley was as deeply involved in every aspect of the making of it as he was this time. With Cooley's writing, there's almost no precedent for it in our catalog. He came in with this stunning bunch of songs, full of this beautiful imagery."
Writing independently, Cooley and Hood penned songs that dovetailed brilliantly with each other. Hood says, "Every song on this record connects with another song. I noticed Cooley's got a line in 'Primer Coat' about 'apron strings,' and I have the exact same image in one of my songs, 'Hanging On.' It goes on and on and on like that on this record, and that's a pretty good sign for things, particularly given how different our temperaments are and our styles of writing are."
Cooley and Hood's brace of character-based songs depict a neatly interlocking gallery of relationships, often in dissolution and discord. The last song written and recorded for the album, Hood's rave-up "Pauline Hawkins," was based on a new novel by Willy Vlautin and penned after another of his compositions was scrapped.
Hood says, "There was such a balance between Cooley's songs and my songs that taking a song off the record would upset the balance a little bit. I liked the back-and-forth flow, like our shows tend to do. I got an advance copy of Willy's latest book, The Free. I've been a fan of his writing for a while. I read it in about three days. I finished it on Saturday, I wrote the song on Sunday, and then we cut it on Thursday and mastered the record on the following Monday. It sure makes it a better record."
DBT's ever-keen political edge can be seen in two songs on the release. Cooley's "Made Up English Oceans" derives from his interest in the career of Lee Atwater, the Republican operative who was active in the Reagan and Bush campaigns of the '80s. "He was the guy that Karl Rove and all of the modern dirty tricksters looked to – he was one of the granddaddies of it all. That song is from his point of view, fictionally of course. It's him making his pitch, telling what he understands about young, Southern men."
Hood says "The Part of Him" was inspired by the procession of scandals that plague the political world year after year. "It's about political assholery -- there's someone new playing that role every few months," he says. "As soon as we get rid of one of them, someone comes up and starts playing that part again."
Reflecting the renewed high level of collaboration between the band's two principals, English Oceans marks an unprecedented event: the recording of a Hood song, "Til He's Dead or Rises," with Cooley assuming the lead vocal.
Cooley says, "I remember Patterson was getting frustrated trying to sing it. He was doing fine, but it seemed like there was something he wanted to do that wasn't coming. I was in the control room thinking, 'I could probably sing this' -- though it wasn't like I was saying, 'Oh, I can sing this a lot better than that.' I was thinking, 'This sounds like something I could sing.' Right after that, he walks into the control room and says, 'You want to trying singing this? It sounds more like you than me.' I said, 'Yeah, I was just thinking that.'"
"Grand Canyon," the final song on the album, is an emotionally overwhelming elegy for Craig Lieske, a longtime member of DBT's touring family. The former manager of Athens' 40 Watt Club and a key player in the city's experimental music scene, Lieske died suddenly of a heart attack in January 2013 following the first night of the band's three-night homecoming stand in Athens. English Oceans is dedicated to him.
"I probably wrote it in 15 minutes," Hood says. "It wasn't any kind of a conscious thing. It's the most important song of mine on the record. I wrote new songs to go with it. It recalibrated something. It became a totally different record for me than the record I thought we were going to make."
The album was recorded with a compact, retooled lineup. Jay Gonzalez, who joined the band in 2008 as keyboardist, stepped into an expanded role by adding guitar to his duties, while bassist Matt Patton was drafted from the Tuscaloosa group The Dexateens. The unit was road-tested during dates in 2013.
Cooley says, "This lineup is so direct. It can go from this chainsaw rock 'n' roll to very delicate, pretty-sounding stuff. We wrote a lot of those kinds of songs, and this lineup got all of that well."
Hood agrees: "We recorded with a stripped-down lineup that gave things a more primal and immediate feel. It's a more turn-on-a-dime kind of thing, which suits these songs, and us as a band. It's a very tasteful group, and when it needs to be it can be a very big, powerful, over-the-top band, too, and it can go from one to the other seamlessly."
Looking at the accomplishments of English Oceans from the perspective of DBT's nearly three-decade history, both Cooley and Hood decline to hedge their bets on the quality of their latest work.
"You're always hesitant to say, 'Oh, this is the best record we've ever made,'" Cooley says, "because you always want to. And sometimes you say it, and sometimes you're right, and sometimes you think, 'Well, maybe I jumped the gun on that a little bit, I got excited.' But I think this just might be the best record we've ever made."
Hood concurs enthusiastically: "It's my favorite thing that we've ever done. I'm proud of our catalog – we always try to make as good a record as we can make. Sometimes things just work. This time, we made kind of a magical record. I've always felt that Decoration Day was our best record, and this is the first one that I think is a better record than that was. Every piece of the puzzle fit."
Drive-By Truckers tour dates:
Fri Jan 31 Asheville NC Orange Peel - with T Hardy Morris
Sat Feb 01 Asheville NC Orange Peel - with Promise Land Sound
Thu Feb 13 Athens GA 40 Watt - with New Madrid
Fri Feb 14 Athens GA 40 Watt - with T. Hardy Morris & Camp Amped Band
Sat Feb 15 Athens GA 40 Watt - with St. Paul and the Broken Bones
Fri Mar 14 Raleigh NC The Ritz - with Blitzen Trapper
Sat Mar 15 Richmond VA The National - with Blitzen Trapper
Sun Mar 16 Wilmington DE World Cafe Live @ The Queen - with Blitzen Trapper
Tue Mar 18 New Haven CT Toads Place - with Blitzen Trapper
Thu Mar 20 New York NY Terminal 5 - with Blitzen Trapper
Fri Mar 21 Boston MA House Of Blues - with Blitzen Trapper
Sat Mar 22 Washington DC 9:30 Club - with Blitzen Trapper
Sun Mar 23 Washington DC 9:30 Club - with Blitzen Trapper
Tue Mar 25 Indianapolis IN The Vogue - with Blitzen Trapper
Wed Mar 26 Milwaukee WI Turner Hall - with Blitzen Trapper
Thu Mar 27 Minneapolis MN First Avenue - with Blitzen Trapper
Fri Mar 28 Madison WI Barrymore Theater - with Blitzen Trapper
Sat Mar 29 St. Louis MO The Pageant - with Blitzen Trapper
Sat Apr 12 Berkeley CA The Greek Theatre - with Willie Nelson & Shovels & Rope
Sat Apr 19 Denver CO Fillmore Auditorium
Tue Apr 22 Vancouver BC Vogue Theater - with Shovels & Rope
Wed Apr 23 Seattle WA Showbox @ Sodo - with Shovels & Rope
Thu Apr 24 Portland OR Roseland - with Shovels & Rope
Fri Apr 25 Sacramento CA Ace Of Spades - with Shovels & Rope
Sat Apr 26 Los Angeles CA The Fonda Theater
Sun Apr 27 Phoenix AZ Crescent Ballroom
Wed Apr 30 San Antonio TX Aztec Theatre
Thu May 01 Austin TX Stubbs
Fri May 02 New Orleans LA Civic Theatre
Sat May 03 New Orleans LA Civic Theatre
Sat May 10 Dublin IRL Vicar St.
Sun May 11 Glasgow UK ABC
Mon May 12 Manchester UK Ritz
Tue May 13 London UK Shepherds Bush Empire
Thu May 15 Amsterdam NL Paradiso
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