Drive-By Truckers Gear Up to Deliver 'Go-Go Boots'

posted in: Country • Features

The Drive-By Truckers are ready to deliver the band’s next album, Go-Go Boots, less than a year after releasing The Big To-Do.

So what’s the rush?

“It is going to be our Valentine’s Day record,” Chief Trucker Patterson Hood says. “We are really excited about it because we think this is the one that’s hopefully going to take it to the next level.”

Not that Drive-By Truckers have been any slouches. The Big To-Do debuted at No. 22 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart and No. 1 on the Indie Chart. Credit Hood, co-founder Mike Cooley and their band mates for not wavering from the band’s distinctive three-guitar line up since the band’s 1998 formation. The result has been an ultra-loyal fan base that has propelled the alt-country, southern-rock band up the charts and onto a growing number of critics “best of” lists.

“You know, I wouldn’t trade [the song] ‘Birthday Boy’ for a dozen of ‘Faithfully,'” says Hood mentioning a top-charting ballad by the rock band Journey. “The thing about the ballads is that you play them at those moments when you have an arena full of screaming girls. We don’t have either the ballads or the screaming girls.

Perhaps not now but we’ll see what happens when the fan base grows even stronger especially now that the Truckers’ spent part of the summer touring with their personal musical hero Tom Petty.

“That was a great experience and I think everyone really enjoyed it,” says Hood noting that at one time the Truckers’ had vowed not to take more opening gigs but quickly relented when Petty came calling. “I think it made us a better band, too.”

Fans will see that during the tour for Go-Go Boots when the band’s set list will draw heavily from the rock sounds presented on The Big To-Do and what Hood calls “the country, soul, murder ballad record” Go-Go Boots.

“We’ve worked real hard and I feel like it’s been rewarding and rewarded, too,” says Hood. “You know the economy is stuck right now and¦.we have built up a good enough set that people feel a little better spending their hard earned [money] to hear us. You know, we’re pretty consistent. Our show changes every night..and there are a lot of things about it that are in constant flux. We take it pretty seriously to make sure it’s 100% every night.

Most of the songs for both records were recorded at the same time, says Hood. The band decided to make two albums out of the works rather than leave some songs out or release a “ridiculously long, sprawling record.”

The songs on Go-Go Boots were influenced heavily by the band’s love for the music of Bobbie Womack, Eddie Hinton and soulful music often classified as the “Muscle Shoals (Alabama) sound.”

“Those influences loom very large on this record,” says Hood. “We have all been obsessed Eddie Hinton fans for years.”

In fact, the band covers the Hinton songs “Everybody Needs Love” and “Where’s Eddie?” which Hinton wrote and the British singer Lulu recorded in 1969.

“‘Everybody Needs Love’ doesn’t sound like something I’ve ever written, but it sure sounds like something I wish I could have written,” says Hood. “I feel as strongly performing that song as anything I’ve written. It’s kind of fun shining a light on [those songs] and hopefully encouraging more people to check Eddie’s music out¦.It was a labor of love recording those songs.”

[Editor’s Note: The Drive-By Truckers will release a 10-inch record with the songs “Thanksgiving Filter” and “Used to Be a Cop,” on November 26 in celebration of Record Store Day. Both songs will be included on Go-Go Boots.  The band will also release a film, The Secret to a Happy Ending, about how the American South shaped rock ‘n’ roll. For more details, check out the band’s Web site.

By Nancy Dunham

Nancy Dunham writes about music for Country Weekly, AOL Music’s site The Boot, The Washington Post, Relix and other publications.