(ATO Records)

Band of Duracell bunnies make welcome return

Southern rockers are notorious for keeping to an indomitable schedule until they run themselves into the ground, either through bandmember departures, deteriorating musical products or – in more spectacular cases like The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd – death. Drive-By Truckers, managing almost an album a year in between tours and other projects for over a decade, have done better than all of their contemporaries and ancestors. But with the three-pronged events of long-time guitarist Jason Isbell’s departure in 2007, their involvement as backing band on soul icon Booker T’s meandering recent solo album and releasing a collection of b-sides, oddities and rarities last year, all signs were suggesting that their plane may be taking a slow, unplanned decent. Yes, a Lynyrd Skynyrd joke … too soon? Either way, The Big To-Do is just as the name suggests: an event, a carnival, a rollicking, good time rock & roll show. Even more so than usual, the Patterson Hood has a commanding presence, both with his trademark rasp and mournful songwriting. This leaves plenty of space for crystalline interplay between the gritty chords of Mike Cooley and slide guitar work of John Neff, best displayed on, well, friggin’ all over the place. Country rock purists may be unhappy with the band almost abandoning some of their greatest deep South influences in lieu of a more straightforward bar band rock & roll, but when aren’t country rock purists complaining about something? Be happy that this band continue to defy the odds and history.

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MITCH ALEXANDER

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