Drive-By Truckers

Decoration Day (New West Records ’03) Rating: A-
Coming hot on the heels of 2001's notable Southern Rock Opera, which paid tribute to the legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd over the course of two action packed cds, Decoration Day further establishes the Drive-By Truckers as one of today's top American bands (and the top Southern rock band). Like Skynyrd, the band has a three guitar lineup that can burn (they also have three lead singers), but their ragged rockers owe as much to Neil Young and Crazy Horse and The Rolling Stones as they do to Skynyrd, and their plentiful ballads owe more to the country rock side of bands like Wilco, with pedal steel guitars and fiddles fleshing out the bands sound. Some of these songs are flat out fantastic, both musically and lyrically. For example, the gritty Southern realism of "Sink Hole," where their triple guitars weave in, out, and around the main melody, makes Kings Of Leon sound like the boys that they almost are, while "Hell No, I Ain't Happy" is the perfect song for when you're pissed off. "Marry Me" is all about it's great Stonesy groove, but "My Sweet Annette" shows a much softer side. These guys, particularly Patterson Hood, really know how to tell an affecting story. I know that I feel heartbroken for poor Annette, and the absolutely gorgeous country-based music makes the lyrics that much more powerful. "Outfit" is another deeply affecting number that echoes the simple, small town sentiments of Skynyrd's "Simple Man," while "Heathens" is really pretty and "Sounds Better In The Song" matches another timeless backwoods melody to intelligent lyrics depicting the resigned feelings that can accompany a deteriorating relationship. There's still hope on the next song, even if "(Something's Got to) Give Pretty Soon," and elsewhere we get treated to tales of incest ("The Deeper In," which seems rather plain at first until you realize what's happening, and how clever these guys really are), deadbeat boyfriends ("Your Daddy Hates Me," a somewhat overly plodding dirge that's more than salvaged by some searing guitar), lessons on life (the short, punkish "Careless," which details how one screw up can screw up everything), and sad sack wives ("Loaded Gun In The Closet," the album's twangiest song). As with 99% of all albums today, this one is (here we go again, all together now) a little too long, with a few songs towards the end being solid but not especially memorable. But believe me when I say that this album is a very high A-. After all, how many bands can make you almost want to cry while kicking your ass at the same time (the suicide lament "Do It Yourself")?

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