plorentz's Full Review: A Blessing and a Curse [Digipak] by Drive-By Truck...
With their last three albums, the Drive-By Truckers created a triptych of unabashed Southern-ness - celebrating Southern rock (and specifically Lynyrd Skynyrd) in their sprawling 2002 album Southern Rock Opera, considering Southern family values in Decoration Day (2003), and advancing all sorts of Southern mythology and iconography in 2004's The Dirty South. The South has been more religion than region in their music, and even before they started making the grand musical statements that have made them respectable in recent years, their vision was, above all else, authentically Southern.
Or not. Because an argument could me made quite easily and quite convincingly that the Drive-By Truckers, Southern (and truckers) though they may (have) be(en), write and perform for an audience that is more blue state than red; that what they do is a sort of minstrelsy that's both exploitive and condescending. After all, Decoration Day starts off with a song about incest, and how many shame-of-the-South stereotypes does that perpetuate? It became quickly obvious that the band's mission statement had less in common with their proclaimed heroes, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Southern rock of yore, than it had with the (much) more liberal-leaning Southern indie scenes of the 80s - bands like drivin' n' cryin' and Let's Active. (Tellingly the band is currently based in Athens, GA, and recorded their latest album at Mitch Easter's studio.) And it could be said, quite rightly, that whether or not they wore their flannel and caps as ironic costumery, they were often perceived that way. Maxim gave 'em five stars. So did I. And I can't stand "Sweet Home Alabama."
But they're not wearing flannel-and-caps on the back cover of their latest album A Blessing and a Curse. They're all stuffed in what look like old-timey frat-boy suits and ties, like boys (and a girl) dressed up by an overly fussy mother - and looking, for the most part, properly uncomfortable. Talk about ironic costumery. Also, for probably the first time in their career, their songwriting isn't defined by or centered around their defiant Southern-ness - which, despite the consequent connotations of condescension, always provided their sprawling albums a sense of focus and purpose. And at a relatively modest 47 minutes, this record is far less sprawling than its predecessors. All of which might prove problematic for the Maxim crowd, and certainly proved troublesome for me at first.
But I got past it: Just because the record isn't focused on some aspect of Southern-ness doesn't mean it's not focused, and this record clearly has an underlying theme to it. Namely, and to quote a couplet from an old They Might Be Giants song:
No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful
Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful
It's a recurring message throughout the appropriately titled A Blessing and a Curse, summed up most succinctly in the closing track, "World of Hurt", which is basically a monologue by de facto head trucker Patterson Hood full of philosophical nuggets about life and love - lines like the key to a happy ending is knowing when to roll the credits - punctuated by a mournful chant of a chorus: it's gonna be a world of hurt.
Not that there's anything particularly original about the sentiment, but the Drive-By Truckers have proven themselves poets in their given genre, their lyrics - even at their most rednecky - far more literate and clever than the macho, beer-bellied posturing of their arena rock forebears. In "Little Bonnie", Hood sings about a little girl who died before the age of 4, relating stories about how her father took her death to be punishment for his sins, and how people always said that her eyes put the night stars to shame. It's all sweet and country-bumpkin sentimental until the last verse when he talks about having grown up with the girl - she was his sister - even though she was dead before he was born. There's both affection and resentment in those last few lines, and that kind of emotional complexity is always what made Drive-By Truckers' music compelling - far more than their ragged, not-always-very-catchy melodies, or their grunged-out, shit-kicking guitar sound.
Though Hood takes the lion's share of writer credits on the album, the band boasts several worthy singer-songwriters - and though I've actually purchased a Patterson Hood solo album, I'd have sooner bought records by his colleagues Jacob Isbell, who shows off an endearing Tom Petty whine on songs like "Easy on Yourself" and "Daylight"; and Mike Cooley, whose delivery of the upbeat-but-despairing "Gravity's Gone" is full of bloody-red-meat and home-brewed beer. He could have kicked John Cougar's ass back when John Cougar kicked ass (and was called John Cougar).
It may not necessarily sound like it, but A Blessing and a Curse is a pivotal record for the Truckers, if only because it makes us hear the band as "a band" rather than "that southern rock revival band". For once, all of their strengths (fantastic lyrics, raw, energetic playing) and weaknesses (Hood's grating voice, a slight hook deficiency) are laid bare. And I'm finding that I'm not just re-evaluating the group as a band, but also re-evaluating their previous "Southern" records. Not that I suddenly dislike them (I still regard Decoration Day as something of a masterpiece, and The Dirty South is never less than listenable), but it's easier for me to sympathize with arguments against them (if I didn't, to an extent, already). A Blessing and a Curse, then, ultimately comes off as the most authentic record they've released. And the most Southern. And unlike their previous records, I'd actually recommend this one to fans of Lynyrd Skynyrd. (And drivin' n' cryin'.)
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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
"A Blessing and a Curse" by Drive-By Truckers
New West Records
Released 4/18/06
Produced by David Barbe
47 min.
SONGS: Feb 14 - Gravity's Gone - Easy on Yourself - Aftermath USA - Goodbye - Daylight - Wednesday - Little Bonnie - Space City - A Blessing and a Curse - A World of Hurt
The Drive-By Truckers are purveyors of a new kind of southern rock storytelling - dense, dark, majestic and intelligent. Featuring three absolute ace ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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