Decoration Day

Frequently during this process I have come across an album or band that I latched onto immediately, making a connection to the songs or artist…a “Eureka!” moment, you could say.  PJ Harvey’s Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea is an example of this.  With the Drive-By Truckers I knew that I needed to listen to them, but I really didn’t know anything about them.  One day I downloaded Spin’s March playlist, which included “Used to Be a Cop” off the Truckers’ current release, Go-Go Boots.  I liked it quite a bit, so I grabbed a couple of records from my local library (Go-Go Boots and Brighter Than Creation’s Dark) and was hooked.

Anyway, I was trying to find a way to listen to the two albums on my list from them, Decoration Day (2003) and The Dirty South (2004), and a friend of mine happened to have both as well as Southern Rock Opera (which is an absolute rock masterpiece that I highly recommend).  I have listened to them both, and, needless to say, I have established a fascination with the band.  The Truckers are driven really by two members—Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley.  They feature a three-guitar attack with drums and bass to round out the sound.  Hood (vocals, guitars) and Cooley (guitars, vocals) write probably 75% of the material on the albums, and the other 25% comes from other members of the band.  In the case of Decoration Day and The Dirty South, the other 25% came from Jason Isbell, the third guitarist and vocalist during this period that brought another strong songwriter to the band.

I have decided since I didn’t do the Hold Steady justice in listening through their albums consecutively that I would do the Drive-By Truckers justice and listen to their earlier album first – Decoration Day.

#78 – Drive-By Truckers, Decoration Day (Metascore = 87)

Before even diving into the material, I want to make a comment regarding the songwriting.  Hood, Cooley and Isbell as a team write amazing material.  Their collaborations on this album and on The Dirty South represent the high points in the Truckers’ discography (save for Southern Rock Opera, which featured contributions from the guitarist before Isbell, Rob Malone).  The strength of the band has always been in its storytelling, and on Decoration Day they do this extremely well.  Isbell left the band after The Dirty South (my guess since I haven’t read anything further on the topic other than it was an amicable departure is that he wanted to have more of his songs on the record), and I think his material hasn’t been as strong since.  I would imagine if Hood or Cooley pursued solo recordings they would have similar results.  Working as a team, like any collaborative team in music, they were able to listen, critique, and refine the material to a finished product, and having that extra set of ears made the music that much better.

Hood opens the album with “The Deeper In”, a slow tune about the only brother and sister in the U.S. serving time in prison for consensual incest.  He recounts details of the story in a way that reminds me of some of Bob Dylan’s earlier records, such as “The Ballad of Hollis Brown”.  ”Sink Hole” and “Hell No, I Ain’t Happy” are total contrasts in sound to “The Deeper In”, showcasing that powerful guitar attack reminiscent of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band.  They are two of my favorite tracks from the record for their powerful sound and interesting lyrics.  In these first few songs you can get a great feel for the songwriting style of the band, how they are great at telling stories and grabbing the listener’s attention.

Sometimes their songs sound like rip offs of other famous bands.  “Marry Me” (a Cooley original) sounds similar to the Eagles’ “Already Gone”, for instance.  “Your Daddy Hates Me” sounds like it was pulled out of the Lynyrd Skynyrd catalog.  But I think that’s part of the fun of the band, that they will acknowledge their influences in their writing.  The band in some ways strengthens those artists’ catalogs through paying homage.

Decoration Day, next to Southern Rock Opera, is my favorite record from them.  I really don’t believe there are any bad songs on here.  The imagery that Hood, Cooley, and Isbell evoke in song is so provocative that, even though you don’t need multiple listens to understand them, you feel like you have to listen to this record several times.  Southern rock has had a revival of sorts since country music started borrowing its sounds in the late ‘90’s and early ‘00’s (see Chesney, Kenny or Urban, Keith), but its best new songwriters are right here.  I think this record deserves a better score than it got; it’s a very good listen and better that some of the records I have heard that were rated higher.