CD Review

The Drive By Truckers fall into an odd category that has them living a four star dream from critics, but tossed into the “southern rock” bin by skeptical music fans. Coupled with My Morning Jacket, no such band has received as much critical acclaim over the past three years. Unlike the Kentucky rockers who revamped their sound with Z, these Alabama boys stick to their tried and true formula on A Blessing and a Curse, their fourth album in five years. This time around Patterson Hood &Co. gel their stories to become north of the Mason Dixon line friendly, as the images of tornadoes and bad luck gone bad vanish.

The band’s three main songwriters – Hood, Jason Isbell and Mike Cooley – key in on their classic rock influences with the Truckers’ sweaty guitar twang. Shades of Blue Oyster Cult, Molly Hatchett and the Stones rise in “Easy On Yourself” and the debauchery hymn “Aftermath U.S.A.” Hood keys in on new themes of relationships with the six minute long dirge, “Goodbye,” while the opener “Feb. 14” is an obvious kiss off to the Hallmark holiday. Two acoustic based songs- “Little Bonnie” and “Space City,” make a folksy turn for the wiser, while Hood delivers his sweet bitterness on the closer "A World of Hurt" with the line - "To love is to feel pain, there is no way around it." But despite the more accessible motives, the Truckers still have that - all guts, no glory flair that reminds you that not all "southern rock" is for the county fair circuit.