Drive-By Truckers
The Dirty South: Live at The 40 Watt
New West Records
By Greg Yost
 With a string
of critically-acclaimed albums and a high-octane live show, the
Drive-By Truckers single-handedly revived and redefined the Southern
rock genre over the last few years. In celebration of the release
of its latest album, The Dirty South, the band played
two special shows on August 27 and 28 at The 40 Watt in Athens,
Georgia. These shows, which officially kicked-off The Dirty South
Tour, were recorded and the resulting DVD is testament to the
sound and the fury that is a Drive-By Truckers performance.
The band's current lineup features the triple guitar/vocal
attack of Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell
and the sound has never been sweeter. Shonna Tucker and Brad
Morgan round-out the group and provide the backdrop for the gritty
and soaring tales of the "New South."
Much like past masters of
the Southern rock genre, Hood and company have a gift for writing
songs that capture the trials and tribulations of the South and
give a voice to the social, economic and political issues that
affect the region. While these strong narrative qualities give
the band's albums a great deal of depth, the live shows are more
memorable for their aggressive and straightforward rock music.
As the title suggests the focus of these performances and
the entire tour was the new album, with 12 of The Dirty South's
14 songs making an appearance. The crowd took to the new material
immediately, and new songs like the hard-charging "Carl
Perkins' Cadillac" and the brooding "Goddamn Lonely
Love" fit nicely beside established fan-favorites like "The
Southern Thing," "Women Without Whiskey" and "The
Living Bubba" on this DVD.
The show finishes with a searing cover of Jim Carroll's underground
classic "People Who Died." Though possibly more famous
for being the author of the cult-favorite book "The Basketball
Diaries," Carroll gained quite a bit of notoriety for this
song. The Drive-By Truckers take the basic framework and give
it a raucous Southern rock injection a fine way to end
this session to a close.
The Dirty South: Live at The 40 Watt shines on many
different levels. Not only does it document one of rock's finest
bands in top form, but it does so with audio and video so clear
that you can almost smell the smoke and feel the heat of the
packed club from your couch.
If you've been lucky enough to catch the Drive-By Truckers
live before, you will want this DVD as a reminder of how amazing
the band is live. But for anyone new to the band, this disc will
open your eyes to a whole new world of modern-day, Southern rock
splendor.
www.drivebytruckers.com
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