Revamped Drive-By Truckers Return With New Album
Wednesday December 19, 2007 @ 05:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Drive-By Truckers

Southern rockers Drive-By Truckers have a new look since the spring departure of Jason Isbell, but they're as prolific as ever on their new Brighter Than Creation's Dark album.

The record, due on Jan. 22 from New West, features 19 songs. While founding members Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley wrote the bulk of them, bassist Shonna Tucker makes her songwriting debut on the disc with three cuts. Longtime pedal steel and guitar sidekick John Neff has been promoted to full-time band member, while veteran keyboardist Spooner Oldham (Neil Young, Bob Dylan) sat in on the recording sessions.

"We went with Brighter Than Creation's Dark, which came from a line in Cooley's song 'Checkout Time in Vegas' and to me made an apt description of the music we had made," Hood wrote of the album title on the band's website. "Don't think we ever got that unanimous vote, but ran out of time and had to name it something."

The Truckers' eighth album will be available on both CD and as a double vinyl LP.

"Not only is this our finest album, but it sounds better on vinyl by an even bigger margin than any of the others," says Hood. "It was written, learned, played, mixed and mastered for vinyl."

"The Righteous Path," "I'm Sorry Huston" and "A Ghost To Most" can be previewed on the group's MySpace page.

The Drive-By Truckers will embark on an extensive North American tour in February and will play Toronto's Opera House on March 19 and Montreal's Cabaret Music Hall the next night.

Here are the songs on Brighter Than Creation's Dark:

• "Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife"
• "3 Times Down"
• "The Righteous Path"
• "I'm Sorry Houston"
• "Perfect Timing"
• "Daddy Needs A Drink"
• "Self Destructive Zones"
• "Bob"
• "Home Field Advantage"
• "The Opening Act"
• "Lisa's Birthday"
• "That Man I Shot"
• "The Purgatory Line"
• "The Home Front"
• "Checkout Time In Vegas"
• "You And Your Crystal Meth"
• "Goode's Field Road"
• "Ghost To Most"
• "Monument Valley"