Drive-By Truckers began recording The Dirty South last summer, shortly before the release of Decoration Day, at producer David Barbe's Chase Park Transduction Studio in Athens, Georgia. Sessions there continued in between tour dates through the end of the year. In January of 2004, to finish the job, the band trekked to their hometown of Muscle Shoals, Alabama to record for the first time ever at FAME Recording Studio, where many of the greatest soul and R&B records of all-time were made. In August of '04, New West Records released the sixth album from Drive-By Truckers--The Dirty South. If Decoration Day was about the choices people make and living with the results and ramifications, the songs on The Dirty South are about people who now believe they have no choice and how this leads some of them to turn to a life of crime to provide for their families.
Back in the '70s, as you entered town, the city limits sign announced "Welcome to Muscle Shoals Alabama, The Hit Recording Capitol of the World." It was no idle boast. The signs are long gone now, as are most of the studios. The legendary FAME Recording Studio survived, however, due to a mix of diversity and determination. Percy Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman," Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally," Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)," and "Do Right Woman" are among the songs to come out of FAME. David Hood (Father of lead Trucker, Patterson Hood) and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section left their gig at FAME to start the equally legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio where the Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, Willie Nelson, Traffic, Cher, Boz Scaggs, and Rod Stewart were just a few of the artists they recorded (and recorded with).
All of this classic recording history offers a taste of where the members of DBT come from. It was important for them to finally go back home to record.
Many of the songs on The Dirty South take place against this backdrop of the North Alabama hometown where four out of five of the Truckers grew up (drummer, Brad Morgan, hails from Greenville, SC), an area where, like the studios and the sign, the economy and hope have now disappeared. Even nearby Huntsville, one-time NASA headquarters, has become a town of run-down neighborhoods and boarded up buildings. Plastic strip-malls and corporate coffee shops replaced the once proud small-town businesses. This reality is addressed on The Dirty South. Musically, the album also announces the arrival of new bassist Shonna Tucker, a veteran of the Muscle Shoals music community, who spent years playing live gigs and studio sessions before joining the band. (She actually made her recording debut with the Truckers playing upright bass on "Sounds Better In The Song" on Decoration Day.)
Hood had been writing songs since third grade and had spent a decade-and-a-half in and out of various bands in Muscle Shoals and Auburn, Alabama before moving to Athens, Georgia. There he began writing a group of songs that became the skeleton for DBT's first two albums (Gangstabilly in 1998 and Pizza Deliverance in 1999). He co-founded the band with long-time musical partner and fellow Alabama native Mike Cooley and a bunch of really talented Georgia musicians (mostly borrowed from other local bands).
After two years on the road (documented by a live album, 2000's Alabama Ass Whuppin'), the band had morphed into a tight, self-contained unit playing close to 200 dates a year. Independent almost to a fault, they also managed to self-finance, record, and release a 20-song, two-CD song-cycle about growing up in Muscle Shoals, people's misconceptions of Southerners, and "The Duality Of The Southern Thing." 2001's Southern Rock Opera seemed to hit a nerve with fans and critics alike, earning a four-star review in Rolling Stone and ending up on many national year-end lists. Later, it was reissued by Mercury/Lost Highway Records.
2003 saw the release of DBT's New West debut, Decoration Day. The 14-song album was even better received than its predecessor, ending up on year-end lists all over the world, including a very impressive finish in Village Voice's prestigious "Pazz & Jop" poll, picked as Album O The Year in Harp magazine and Band Of The Year in No Depression magazine. The album was the introduction of a new addition, another North Alabama native, guitarist Jason Isbell, who wrote the title cut on his third day in the band. DBT had found its best incarnation, with three guitarists, three songwriters, and three front men.
Now Drive-By Truckers bring you home to Muscle Shoals, Alabama and The Dirty South.
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