Life in the Fast Lane: Drive-By Truckers

WHEN IT COMES to down-time, Patterson Hood isn't all that clear on the concept.

He and his band, Drive-By Truckers, had been on the road steadily since the double-disc Skynyrd-centric "Southern Rock Opera" popped up on the national radar in 2001-2002. About Halloween '06, they decided to give it a rest.

Often, with bands that know their way around a plate of okra and a case of Jack, recreation involves firework-fishing, irresponsible motorsports and shooting at whatever's laying out in the front yard.

For the DBTs, taking a break meant writing more songs than would fit on their next three albums, going into the studio to back up rediscovered soul chanteuse Bettye LaVette and undertaking a semi-acoustic tour, dubbed "The Dirt Underneath," where they worked up the new tunes and highlighted material overlooked at harder gigs. Then they cut next year's album.

"Our plan was to take most of this year off," Hood said last week. "I'm not quite sure how we thought we were gonna support ourselves or pay the bills, in light of the fact that we don't get mailbox money.

"The new record's kind of all over the map," he explained. "A couple of songs sound like they could've come off of country records from the early '60s. And a couple of songs are almost Stooges/MC5 primal stomp. [There's] almost a Howlin' Wolf influence on one song."

As he did earlier this year, one of the band's biggest inspirations, legendary Muscle Shoals session man and songwriter Spooner Oldham, will be joining the band onstage.

"They were playin' '70s AM Top 40-type radio at this steakhouse we were eating at last night — we're in Tulsa — and just sitting there eatin' dinner, I heard three songs that Spooner played on," Hood said.

"'When a Man Loves a Woman' — there's Spooner playin' the organ. 'I'm Your Puppet' — all right, he wrote that one. It's been really amazing having him out with us."

Rams Head Live, 20 Market Place, Baltimore, Md.; with Ryan Bingham and The Dead Horses, Sun., 7 p.m. (doors), $20; 410-244-1131.

Written by Express contributor Glenn Dixon

Photo courtesy Thirty Tigers