Drive-By Truckers – The Unraveling
ATO Records – 31 January 2020
Their first album in just over three years has a lot of political ground to catch up on. Embracing as it does all of Trump’s presidency to date and the unravelling of the nation in its wake. As Patterson Hood puts it, “If the last one was a warning shot hinting at a coming storm, this one was written in the wreckage and aftermath.”
Recorded in Memphis at the legendary Sam Phillips studio, inspired by a Bobbie Gentry southern gothic, Hood wrote the strings-laden opening ballad, Rosemary with a Bible and a Gun, to honour the occasion, as a “sort of stream of conscious love song to that dark and mythical city on the banks of the Mississippi”, albeit one founded on concerns about how the current administration has given a sense of empowerment to America’s far-right Christian/NRA element.
There’s no doubting the sentiments behind Armageddon’s Back in Town as they fire up the guitars and sing how “You can’t tell the rabbit from the hat” and that “There’s be no healing from the art of double-dealing” while adopting an uptempo Neil Young-like country chug, Thoughts and Prayers turns its attention to the carnage of school shootings with images of blood-covered floors and kids lined up in the playgrounds with their hands in the air, venting anger at the platitudes of those in power who do nothing to back up their word as Hood declares they can “Stick it up your ass with your useless thoughts and prayers”.
They continue to pile on accumulated rage and frustration at the change in America over the course of the presidency in the loping rhythm of 21st Century USA which, inspired by a visit to Gillette, Wyoming and coloured by fiddle, addresses issues of the ruin of small-town middle America under economic collapse where “In a town that’s named for razor blades/All American but Chinese made/Folks working hard for shrinking pay” and where “calloused hearts make even love seem tough” and prescription pills are doled out to numb the despair.
From here a throbbing bassline underpins Heroin Again which, bolstered by swampy organ, speaks of how such conditions, the poverty and lack of hope, leads to an attempt to escape through addiction, which, in a vicious circle, only brings more pain and indignity, calling out “I thought you knew better than that” against squalling guitars. This is followed, in turn, with the equally powerful, slow bluesy Babies In Cages, a one-take five-minute plus, guitar and organ jam indictment of conditions on the Mexican border that’s pretty much summed up in the title as Hood sings of waking up to news on TV with pictures of children “wrapped up in a tinfoil blanket without any shoes” and, ashamed of the world his own kids will inherit asks “Are we so divided/That we can’t at least agree/This ain’t the country that our granddad’s fought for us to be?”
Meanwhile, drawing on the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Cooley described how the Youngian Grievance Merchants was written for his family’s babysitter’s best who was murdered on a light-rail train in Portland and how the shock ran through the community, the song underscoring how such things can happen anywhere, even somewhere as progressive as his hometown.
The album closes in epic eight-minute form with the menacingly prowling Awaiting Resurrection, a lone drumbeat setting the scene before a lonesome slide howl joins as, the rasped vocals mixed back, Hood whispering “There’s an evil in this world”, one that creeps up from behind, the guitars snaking together as he sings how he’s “Seeking some salvation/to the limits of my talents/I hold my family close/trying to find the balance/Between the bad shit going down /and the beauty that this life can keep injecting”, looking for signs of hope and light but concluding how nothing can be done and “, in the end, we’re just standing/Watching greatness fade into darkness/Awaiting Resurrection” as it plays out on tormented and distorted slide.
Whether, as the rocking Slow Ride Argument says, “there’s no going home again” may well depend on the results of the upcoming election, but perhaps this album may help illuminate the path that needs to be taken.
European dates in June 2020, see below:
Drive-By Truckers 2020 Tour
JANUARY
16 – Boulder, CO – Fox Theater
17 – Denver, CO – Gothic Theatre
18 – Denver, CO – Gothic Theatre
FEBRUARY
13 – Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club
14 – Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club
15 – Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club
18 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
19 – Charlottesville, VA – Jefferson Theater
21 – Webster Hall – New York, NY
22 – Boston, MA – Somerville Theatre
23 – Portland, ME – State Theatre
25 – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall
27 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
28 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
29 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
MARCH
20 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
21 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
22 – Arcata, CA – Van Duzer Theatre
24 – Petaluma, CA – Mystic Theatre
26 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
27 – Los Angeles, CA – The Regent Theater
28 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
31 – Albuquerque, NM – El Rey Theater
APRIL
2 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
3 – Austin, TX – Scoot Inn
4 – Austin, TX – Scoot Inn
16 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
17 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
18 – Charleston, NC – High Water Festival *
21 – Winston-Salem, NC – The Ramkat
23 – Lexington, KY – Manchester Music Hall
24 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
25 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
27 – Pensacola, FL – Vinyl Music Hall
28 – Orlando, FL – The Plaza Live
29 – Ponte Vedra Beach, FL – Ponte Vedra Concert Hall
MAY
1 – Birmingham, AL – Iron City
2 – Atlanta, GA – Shaky Knees *
JUNE
1 – Raalte, NL – Ribs and Blues
3 – Dublin, IE – Vicar Street
5 – Leeds, UK – Irish Centre
6 – London, UK – O2 Forum
7 – Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso
8 – Antwerp, BE – De Roma
9 – Köln, DE – Kantine
11 – Berlin, DE – Kesselhaus
12 – Copenhagen, DK – Amager Bio
13 – Stockholm, SW – Sthlm Americana *
14 – Oslo, NO – Rockefeller
15 – Aarhus, DK – Train
19 – Azkena, ES – Azkena Rock Festival *
* FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE