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Besides having perhaps one of the coolest band names in alternative country, the Drive By Truckers also happen to be one of those capable bands that can get away with combining ’90s rock with twangy country ballads. Their new 13-track album, The Big To-Do, stays true to their mix of something like cowpunk’s Colorfinger and the heartland rock of Bruce Springsteen while maintaining vividly dark narratives of the American working class and their setbacks.
Although they have been a band known to experiment, parodying rural hick life or memorable moments involving alcohol, The Big To-Do is a devastating collection of lyrical storytelling. But don’t think for a second that they don’t have any room for irony and wit. In “After The Scene Dies,” the six-member band describes, “The graffiti on the back stage wall gets painted over in muted shade / The club becomes an Old Navy / After the scene dies.” To a musician and music fan alike, nothing is more tragic than having a venue become an Old Navy. Like John Varvatos’ usurpation of CBGB’s, Hood makes the end of the scene so ridiculous it becomes tragically laughable.
The first couple of tracks chronicle more dead-end experiences. The opening song, “Daddy Learned to Fly,” accounts the experience of a child whose father left him and his mother. “Birthday Boy” is about an awkward lap dance, eventually followed by “Drag The Lake Charlie,” an excellent narrative of a teenage girl who lies murdered at the bottom of a lake. “The Wig He Made Her Wear,” is an especially great song about the true story of a woman who shot her pastor-husband because he forced her to dress up during sex. In between these songs and the ones after, the Drive By Truckers continue to explore the dirty violence in long epic narratives.
The album slows down at “You Got Another,” however. A sluggish song with little musical variation, it separates itself from the first half of zingy pieces. While the album picks up afterward, some songs, “It’s Going to Be I Told You So,” and “Santa Fe,” dip into the lackluster style of “You Got Another,” and stray away from the grotesque themes and musically diverse songs from before. At its end, the album redeems itself, finishing with the acoustic beauty, “Eyes Like Glue.”
Tackling Jesus, murder mysteries, loneliness, strippers, alcoholism — all against the backdrop of fast food restaurants and small towns in the south — the Drive By Truckers create a dark, troubling compilation about tragic folks in desperation. Although a bit whiney at times, they are ultimately something like the Flannery O’Connor of country music, only less enthusiastic about Jesus. Twelve years after the release of their first album, Gangstability, the southern rockers show they’ve flowered into a force to be reckoned with. Forgive me for being cheesy, but the Truckers keep on truckin’.
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