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Drive-By Truckers travel new path to rock roots
Mar 03, 2010 (The Augusta Chronicle - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
The Athens, Ga.-based, Alabama-bred rock outfit Drive-By Truckers built a career around concept albums, endless tours and producing raucous rock that both addressed and deconstructed the cliches of Southern rock.
Only one still applies.
While its new release, titled The Big To-Do and scheduled for a mid-March debut, finds the band returning to its epic rock roots, the album is, in many ways, a new approach to an old formula for the Truckers, who play Saturday at Sky City.
Mike Cooley, a founding member and principal songwriter, said that while making thematic albums such as Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day and The Dirty South and then spending months on the road promoting them garnered the band the enthusiastic audience it enjoys today, the Truckers realized early on that the endless studio-tour-studio circuit was not sustainable.
"We figured out that we would have to tour smarter, rather than harder, a long time ago," Cooley said in a recent telephone interview. "It's not smart just to tour like crazy. There has to be a certain amount of strategy. I mean creatively, you're a lot better off if you aren't out there burning yourself out."
Cooley said the idea of leaving an audience wanting more, coupled with familial obligations, has led to Truckers tours becoming shorter and more focused. Still, bringing the Truckers' catalog to audiences is its primary purpose.
"It's funny, because I write a new occupation on my landing card every time I enter the country," he said. "Last time I was a recording artist. Now I'm a performer.
"The thing is, being a live act is what you have to build on. It's certainly what we had to build on. I mean, getting radio play and a mainstream following was never really going to be in the cards for us.
"We are lucky that playing live was something we could do and something we love."
After an introspective turn on its last release, 2008's Brighter Than Creation's Dark , the band recorded two albums' worth of material before deciding to cherry-pick many of the real rockers for an album that addressed both the band's affection for darker material and the joy of playing in a rock band.
"It's funny, because you don't really control what you write," Cooley said. "I mean, if I tried to write a big rock song, I probably couldn't. It has to work itself out. What I think about is whether a song is good and whether it works. Dark is good. The problem is when it becomes bitter."
Over its history, several members have come, gone and, in some instances, returned again. Cooley said that with a band like the Truckers, a certain level of musicianship is important, but not nearly as important as chemistry.
"For us, it's always rejuvenating when someone new is involved," he said. "In this band, everyone brings something to the table ... I'll be the first to admit I'm not good enough or smart enough to tell someone how to play. So it's important that we have that communication, communication that goes both ways."
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