| Drive-By Truckers | Primary Artist |
| John Neff | Pedal Steel Guitar |
| Mike Cooley | Guitar, Vocals |
| Patterson Hood | Guitar, Vocals, Background Vocals, Hi String, Vocal Harmony |
| Jason Isbell | Guitar, Hammond Organ, Vocals, Wurlitzer |
| Brad Morgan | Drums |
| Shonna Tucker | Bass, Vocals |
| Tom T. Hall | Composer |
| Bob Dylan | Composer |
| Tom Petty | Composer |
| David Barbe | Producer, Engineer |
| Kevin Morris | Management |
| John Neff | Composer |
| Warren Zevon | Composer |
| Mike Cooley | Composer |
| Glenn Schick | Mastering |
| Patterson Hood | Composer |
| Wes Freed | Artwork, Paintings |
| Jason Isbell | Composer |
| Brad Morgan | Composer |
| Jimmy Nutt | Engineer |
| Christine Stauder | Management |
| Shonna Tucker | Composer |
This Alabama band has been around for more than a decade now and I'm amazing at how hardly anybody knows them. A few years ago, they did an album called "Southern Rock Opera", which was about the life, career and deaths of the legendary Southern Rock band, Lynyrd Skynyrd. That, in itself, should've been enough to give The Drive-By Truckers a gold disc at the very least. Sadly, that didn't happen. But has it stopped them? No-o-oh! More importantly, are they still making great music? Yes!
"Fine Print" is a collection of B-sides and outtakes from this group over the last few years and what they have cast aside here has the same remarkable artistry and accessability that Oasis generated when they did the same thing in 1998 with "The Masterplan". With the DBTs, as they are sometimes known, they have assembled a triple guitar assault that sounds what would've happened if Crazy Horse cut their records at Muscle Shouls instead of Neil Young's mobile studio.
On this record, they sing of how country singer George Jones survived drinking but almost did not survive a car crash while he was talking on his cell phone, for God's sakes. They also sing of the hopes of Tennesee Valley Authority (or TVA) in creating jobs during the Depression and how it ended up being a greed monger and a destroyer of Southern beauty. Perhaps the best and most chilling song here is "The Great Car Dealer War", inspired by an actual incident where an arsonist was hired by a car dealer to torch his competitor's car lots.
Listening to this stuff, you realize that DBT is the thinking-man's Lynyrd Skynyrd. Although it's easy to see these guys labelled as alternative country along with Son Volt or The Jayhawks, for instance. DBT, on the other hand, also knows a good cover tune when they hear it, such as Tom Petty's "Rebels" and Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone". However, their blazing version of Warren Zevon's "Play It All Night Long" (coupled with Zevon's "Ain't That Pretty At All") is one of those songs that is just dying to be heard on some FM rock station somewhere.
After all these years, are you still going to make believe you never heard of The Drive-By Truckers? Well, "Fine Print" is a great place to start listening.
Anonymous
Posted May 18, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted January 9, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Editorial Reviews
All Music Guide - Mark Deming
Eleven years after releasing their first album and eight years after redefining themselves with Southern Rock Opera, the rare concept album whose execution was just as impressive as its ambitions, the Drive-By Truckers have gained a richly deserved reputation as one of the hardest-working and most rewarding rock bands at work today. Having cranked out five great albums in seven years, they presumably felt bad about not having a new studio effort for 2009, so they've offered fans not one but two time-honored stopgaps -- a live album (actually an installment in New West's Live from Austin, TX series of live discs drawn from the archives of Austin City Limits), and a ...