Over their 13 years performing together the Drive By Truckers have produced a mess of great music, but not all of it made it onto their final 7 studio albums. The mighty DBT and their soon to be ex-label New West Records dug into the vaults and with guidance from longtime producer Dave Barbe, put finishing touches on a selection of songs that were never quite completed. “For me, it’s been a fun stroll through memory lane and a chance to tie up some loose ends” says Patterson Hood.
The result of the collaboration is The Fine Print (A Collection Of Oddities and Rarities 2003-2008) featuring songs written by band members past and present, including Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell. 7 of the twelve songs come from The Dirty South era… a highly creative time for DBT. Hood explains “That was an especially fertile period for the band, as we more or less wrote that album and the one before it, Decoration Day, as well as my first solo album all in a three year period as we were recording and touring behind Southern Rock Opera.”
The record also contains four covers including “Rebels” by Tom Petty, which the band recorded originally for the TV show “King Of The Hill” and “Like A Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan which provided Shonna Tucker with her first ever lead vocal performance on a DBT recording. The Fine Print will be available September 1, 2009.
This summer New West will also release Drive-By Trucker’s entire Austin City Limits performance as a CD / DVD combination pack as a part of the Live From Austin, TX line. The Drive-By Truckers graced the Austin City Limits stage on September 26, 2008 while touring for their last studio album Brighter Than Creation’s Dark.
A CD/DVD combination package featuring the entire performance will be available on July 7th, 2009. The 13 songs, which were filmed in Hi-Def and recorded in 5.1 Surround Sound for the critically acclaimed PBS show, include a mix of new songs from Brighter Than Creation’s Dark alongside the classics “Let There Be Rock” and “18 Wheels Of Love” (off their second album Gangstabilly) and “Marry Me” (from Decoration Day). The band line-up featured is Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, Shonna Tucker, John Neff, Brad Morgan and Jay Gonzalez.
The DBT are currently in the studio working on the next album for an early 2010 release.
THE FINE PRINT TRACK LIST:
1. George Jones Talkin’ Cell Phone Blues
2. Rebels
3. Uncle Frank (alternate version)
4. TVA
5. Goode’s Field Road (alternate version)
6. The Great Car Dealer War
7. Mama Bake A Pie (Daddy Kill A Chicken)
8. When The Well Runs Dry
9. Mrs. Claus’ Kimono
10. Play It All Night Long
11. Little Pony And The Great Big Horse
12. Like A Rolling Stone
LIVE FROM AUSTIN, TX Track List:
1. Perfect Timing
2. Heathens
3. A Ghost To Most
4. The Righteous Path
5. I’m Sorry Huston
6. 3 Dimes Down
7. Puttin’ People On The Moon
8. Space City
9. The Living Bubba
10. Zip City
11. 18 Wheels Of Love
12. Let There Be Rock
13. Marry Me
If you will indulge me a half-cocked theory that the genre lineage represented by the forefathers of swaggering, guitar-driven Southern Rock Lynyrd Skynyrd and of roots-reverent, punk-drunk alt.country Uncle Tupelo beget the fierce, dark Faulknerian beast, The Drive By Truckers. Jason Isbell was a key element in that propagation when he replaced Rob Malone on guitar and vocals during the Southern Rock Opera tour in 2001, a time many see as the start of their golden era.