The Drive-By Truckers rolled into Providence, RI last week carrying a rock show with a strong message. The band with roots in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, put on a show like they used to make ‘em – complete with provocative songwriting, screaming guitars, and a heavy dose of badassery.
Southern Accents
For the uninitiated, the Truckers are a rock and roll band with a southern accent and a pointed message. They started off pretty much a bar band in the late 90’s, singing songs about women and wine (and lots of beer). They broke out nationally in 2002, on the release of Southern Rock Opera, a two disk set widely considered an epic work of storytelling. The album chronicled the experience of growing up in the South in the 1970’s, and included songs about teen angst, race relations and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s tragic plane crash.
Chief songwriters Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley lead the band. Their lyrics come from both sides of the tracks, with stories of small town America that resonate in big cities too. An example can be seen in “Used to Be a Cop.”
“I Used to be a cop, but I got to be too jumpy.
I used to like to party till I coughed up half a lung.
Sometimes late at night I hear the beat a-bumping
I reach for my holster and I wake up all alone.”
Heavy Setlist
The Truckers have built a loyal following over the years, and play a different set every night. Wednesday’s show marked the band’s return to the area, and their first time playing the Columbus Theatre. They opened with “Made Up English Oceans,” a Cooley tune from 2014’s album of the same name. “The Righteous Path” and “A Ghost to Most” followed, with the songwriters trading off tunes throughout the show.
Other early highlights included “Marry Me,” “Sinkhole,” and “The Night G.G. Allin Came to Town.” The latter described a show by the late singer Allin, a punk artist well known for over-the-top stage antics.Themes of pain and struggle appear frequently in Truckers lyrics – “Pauline Hawkins,” an “anti-love” song, is a good example: “Don’t call me your baby, I won’t answer. Love is like cancer, And I am immune.”
Later in the set, Hood introduced a new song “What it Means,” a response to the Trayvon Martin killing. He introduced the song by telling the crowd that “horrific shit can happen, and I’m a white guy with a southern accent and I’ll be the first to tell you Black lives matter and F. U. if you think otherwise.” The lyrics read:
“There won’t be any trial so the air won’t be clear, there’s just two sides calling names out of anger and fear.
If you say it wasn’t racial when they shot him in his tracks, well I guess that means that you ain’t black.
I mean Barrack Obama won and you can choose where to hate, but you don’t see too many white kids lying bleeding on the street.”
Cooley responded with a new protest song of his own, “Ramon Casiano,” based on a true story of a 15 yr. old boy who was shot and killed by a border agent in Larado, Texas. Both songs are expected on a new album in the near future.
“Shit Shots Count,” a straight-ahead rocker was next, followed by set closer “Hell No, I Ain’t Happy,” with Hood’s scratchy voice amplified by those in attendance. The encore included favorites “Zip City” and “Grand Canyon,” an impressive melody with sweeping guitars and powerful lyrics, a tune reflective of the whole DBT experience.
Duality of the American Thing
One of the band’s great moments comes on “Three Great Alabama Icons,” a spoken word essay of sorts fromSouthern Rock Opera. In it, Hood describes the opportunistic racism of former Alabama Governor George Wallace, who late in his career, gained widespread support among African American voters. Hood calls the phenomenon “the duality of the Southern thing.” It’s clear to this reviewer, that in the current political climate, a theme of this band has become the duality of the “American thing.” And that makes them even more relevant than ever.
The Drive-By Truckers are one of the best touring bands in the county. The concert experience is a flashback to rock shows of the 1970s, a time when the nation faced great challenges. Their songs remind us that the country still has a long way to go today.
A version of this review was previously published on GoLocalProv, Rhode Island’s leading online only news and entertainment site.
