It’s almost surprising Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards doesn’t lend vocals and sing his plight called “son of a millworker” to The Drive By Truckers latest opus, The Dirty South. The band’s sixth album is a sweaty collection, capturing true down and out Alabama living, where people have no choice but to lead a life of crime. Tales of tragedy, incest, hardship, struggle, blood, sweat and tears ramify the aura of this narrative release, led by five southerners who lived to tell the tales of "The Dirty South." Stories set in the mid-seventies and early eighties, like 2003’s Decoration Day, bring to life the underbelly of Dixie and bring color to a shady cast of characters.
Striking the studio just prior to releasing Decoration Day, the band in true blue collar fashion, wasted little time in between records. Recorded at The Legendary Fame Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals, AL, the band soaked in the ghosts of Wilson Picket and Percy Sledge to brand their own inspired soul. Critics can’t help but love the Truckers with their three guitarist/songwriter/front-man lineup, leaving enough room for the music to remain inspired.
The thick bleeding guitar notes give songs like the tragedy drenched “Tornado” a sense of gloom, providing images of twisters and ominous dark clouds. Patterson Hood’s unique raspy vocals wail of hardship and pain, giving a friendly radio rocker like “The Day John Henry Died” roots rock credibility. Tunes like “Puttin’ People On The Moon” take the best of 70’s Ted Nugent arena rock while mixing Rust Never Sleeps era Neil Young as Hood sings, “Another joker in the White house and a change was comin’ round/But I’m still workin’ at the Wal-Mart.”
Not all is so gloom, thanks to Mike Cooley’s chirpy “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac” with its loose limbed guitars and storming up the likes of Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis. The third writer, Jason Isbell pays nostalgic tribute to the fallen heroes of The Band with Danko/Manuel, within the song’s lonesome orchestration. Storytelling runs rampant in the dire tale of “Cottonseed” and the gear head account “Daddy’s Cup,” as the guitars play background to the narrative lyrics. The nastiest rocker of them all is the tough suicide ode/long hair rocker “Lookout Mountain.” Perhaps The Dirty South’s only room for criticism is that the band should have dosed our ears with more dirty riffs, aside from the wordy narrative compositions.
The Dirty South in the end, proves just that, and how people turn to a life of a crime to provide and protect for their loved ones – those without choices. The Drive By Truckers had a choice in the direction to go with their sixth release, opting to stay true to their southern roots without falling prey to the county fair circuit. The band could care less if they piss the critics off, but just don’t fuck with this band from Dixie. As Hood
shrills in “Boys From Alabama” - “Don’t piss off the boys from Alabama/you know they won’t let it slide.”
