Drive By Truckers
Born and raised in Northern Alabama, Patterson Hood, was brought up in an environment rich with music and storytelling. For inspiration, Hood needed to look no further than his own immediate family. "There tended to be a lot of storytellers on my Mom's side of the family," Hood recalls. "One of my Great Uncle's was
the family historian and had a photographic memory. He could remember all
these amazing things in vivid detail and told us stories every Christmas and Thanksgiving."
Friends With Benefits closes out the fall series of the Riverwalk Revival Festival on Friday Oct. 9 with the Drive-By Truckers and Augusta's own T. Hardy Morris at the Jessye Norman Amphitheater. Tickets are $25 Advance/$30 Day of show and available at www.theriverwalkrevival.com. Doors Open: 6:30 p.m., Hardy & the Hardknocks: 7:30 p.m. and Drive-By Truckers: 8:45 p.m.
Music was also a major part of Hood's childhood, as his father was a session musician in the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, who recorded countless hits for scores of artists throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
After relocating to Athens, Ga. in 1985, Patterson formed Adam's House Cat with his friend Mike Cooley and the two eventually formed the Drive-By Truckers in 1996. The band released their first album, Gangstabilly in 1998. Despite numerous line up changes over the last 19 years, DBT has proved the band has staying power and will release It’s Great to Be Alive on Oct. 30. Recorded during a three-night stand at the Fillmore in San Francisco, the album boasts 35 songs from every point in the DBT's career.
In a recent email interview, Hood discussed how the stories and music he heard in his youth still influence his songwriting and his role in DBT today.
Augusta Chronicle: You have been referred to as the South's Springsteen. What are your thoughts on this comparison?
PH: That is a really flattering comparison. I am a huge fan and have been since I was 12 or so. Darkness on the Edge of the Town was definitely one of those records that saved my life as a teenager. My approach to playing out live was influenced by the Springsteen shows I saw as an impressionable youth. We are certainly different. I am a generation later so therefore would have been more openly influenced by punk rock and post punk influences. We both approach our regionalism in similar ways, even though his region is the Jersey Shore and ours happens to be down south.
AC: To whom or what do you attribute your interest in storytelling?
PH: Probably my Grandparents and Great Uncles. A big part of my initial attraction to Springsteen was the storytelling element in what he did. He used to tell these epic
stories at his shows. They were funny and sad and very moving. Later on I
became such a huge Tom T. Hall fan for the same reason. The story songs
are really a small fraction of my songs, but they have been the ones that
seem to have caught on and kind of what I am most known for.
AC: What makes a good storyteller?
PH: I am probably sill trying to figure that out. In a song, it is the
details without having too many details. Knowing what to put in and what
to leave out. Finding that little detail that opens up a whole other world
within a verse without taking away from the point at hand.
AC: How do you stay motivated after almost two decades of playing music?
PH: I feel like I am just now getting the hang of it all so now I want to
go out and redeem all of the thousands of shows I did before that happened.
AC: Your last studio album, English Oceans was your highest Billboard
debut to date. What are your hopes for your new release?
PH: I am admittedly pretty ambitious. I love that our band is still growing
after 19 years. I still want to make a better record than we have ever made.
I am still hoping to crack the top 10. We have come really close. I want to
sell out Red Rocks as a headliner. I have played Madison Square Garden once
at Pete Seeger's 90th birthday bash. DBT has not played there yet and I would really like to see that happen.
AC: Your piece on the issue of the Confederate Flag was recently published
in The New York Times and showcased your writing skills. What other non-music writing are you working on now?
PH: I wrote a piece on Vic Chesnutt for an upcoming issue of Oxford
American, which is certainly a long time dream. I just completed a short
story and it is getting published. I am speaking at The Bill Clinton
Presidential Library in December and delivering the commencement at my old
college, which I flunked out of. That is pretty cool, I guess.
AC: What is the DBT story and who is the hero of that story?
PH; We are still living it. Hopefully for a long time. Easy B is our hero.
Brad Morgan, our drummer is the glue that has held all of this together for so long. No Easy B, No DBT.
