Decoration Day

Coming on the heels of the all-time classic, Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day had a lot to live up to. The DBT did the smart thing and seemingly wrote Decoration Day to please only themselves. It initially comes across as less accessible than its predecessor, but repeated listens reveal it to be a richly rewarding album. More than any DBT record before it, Decoration Day feels utterly anachronistic, like it was recorded before the CD era and should ideally be listened to on LP with all the attendant hisses and pops.

The stark opening cut, "The Deeper In" recalls Springsteen's Nebraska album both in mood and lyrical content. "Sink Hole" is a rave-up focusing on an issue near and dear to the heart of Patterson Hood, the collapse of family farms. "Hell No, I Ain't Happy" is typical ornery DBT. Patterson finally relinquishes vocal duties to the Stroker Ace, Mike Cooley, for a classic Skynryd- and Stones-inflected romp on "Marry Me". Songs like "Marry Me" just leave you shaking your head as to how the DBT fail to get airplay on your local rock radio station. "My Sweet Annette" is a pretty little song, even with Patterson and his delightful gravel-throated vocals up front. Isbell makes his first appearance on vocals on the arresting "Outfit" - a few listens to that song and you'll realize that this kid is amazing.

"Sounds Better in the Song" is another of the many highlights on Decoration Day. Cooley referred to it as a "love song" at a recent concert in Pittsburgh, even though it is about a woman who once shared his goals in life but eventually outgrew him and moved on. It's a wonderfully depressing song and hope for Cooley's sake that it is not based on something that happened to him. "Your Daddy Hates Me" recalls those classic Skynyrd blues ballads like "Cheatin Woman" and "I Need You". "When the Pin Hits the Shell" is where Decoration Day peaks. Cooley's on vocals again and, surprise, he's singing about something depressing - this time it's suicide. There's an extraordinary earnestness to his voice and the simple guitar solo after the first verse is one of the most beautiful musical passages I've heard in a long time. "Do It Yourself" is another suicide-themed song, though more upbeat with Patterson on vocals. "Decoration Day" features Isbell's second turn on vocals and again hints at the staggering potential this guy has as a singer and songwriter. To close the album, Cooley obliterates any chance that you aren't depressed yet by turning in yet another suicide-related song, "Loaded Gun in the Closet". It is a very fine closing track and even leaves some hope that the suicide won't occur, which you'll definitely appreciate by this point.

Whereas Southern Rock Opera is the sort of album you can blast at parties, Decoration Day is far more introspective. The best I've ever heard Decoration Day sound was on a recent sweltering Sunday evening while I was relaxing on the couch with the ceiling fan circling overhead. I worry a bit that with the addition of Jason Isbell, there is now too much songwriting talent in the band for everyone to get their chance in the spotlight. Hopefully, the DBT are good enough friends to overcome any inherent tensions related to the number of songs each guitarist gets to write for future albums. I'm sure every DBT fan has his or her own opinion on the topic, but I think that Cooley is the premier songwriter in the band (by just a shade). However, if you sit down and listen to Patterson's "The Deeper In", Isbell's "Outfit", and Cooley's "When the Pit Hits the Shell", you'll immediately grasp why there are three reasonable opinions on this matter. I'm just thankful that there is a band out there as great as the DBT and urge you to support them and their uncompromising brand of rock music.


A Must Have   March 30, 2004
James Carragher (New York)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

Brash and brilliant as Decoration Day is, Drive By Truckers sound on it like a band in transition. When they rock, hard and often, their sound comes straight from the muscle and rowdy tradition of the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the mostly overlooked Georgia Satellites. Hell No, I Ain't Happy is the template and while it is a great sing-a-long bar line of resentment, it's also probably the weakest of the CD's very generous fifteen cuts.

Decoration Day excels because where the Truckers were previously mostly a vehicle for front man Patterson Hood, they now showcase two more major writing talents, Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell. With their contributions and Hood's own better compositions, it's as if the Truckers have mainlined some William Faulkner and Flannery O'Conner, put a whole new true twist on all those tired Southern traditions and cliches. So we get Hood's sympathetic tale of incest, The Deeper In ("..but you took to his jawline and his long sandy hair. How he made you feel like none of the others."), Cooley's rocking Marry Me ("rock and roll means well but it can't help telling young boys lies" or "there's a fool on every corner, on every street, in everyone/and I'd rather be your fool nowhere than go somewhere and be no one's"), Isbell's Outfit (a father's lesson in pride to a son), back to back songs of survivor anger at suicides (When the Pin Hits the Shell and Do It Yourself) and, finally, the spare acoustical Loaded Gun in the Closet. In each of these songs and several others, the scenes and characters are so quirkily and sharply drawn that you feel them alive right beside you.

An even more interesting question than the accomplishment of Decoration Day is what happens next for the band. If the creative egos can co-exist and not implode in their competition, Drive By Truckers are likely to become the standard by which all future hard-rocking Southern bands will be judged.

Aside -- if you're impressed, as I clearly am, see the Drive By Truckers live. They clearly inherit the Stones and James Brown crowns of hardest working band in show business. They, with their female bassist a recent addition, played nearly three hours at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle where I saw them and it was some of the best twelve bucks I'd ever spent. Not least because of their Play It All Night tribute to Warren Zevon -- "play that dead man's song/Turn the speakers up full blast, Play it all night long." They did, they did, and they damn near did.


They Do It Again!!   June 19, 2003
6 out of 8 found this review helpful

One of the many unknown and underappreciated bands that, if the music business worked as it should, would be all over the airwaves. They build on their last cd, the amazing Southern Rock Opera, by adding more instrumentation to the songs. In addition, the two songs by Jason Isbell are a welcome addition to the excellent writing by Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley. The band has been dropped into the "southern rock" bin and while they fit there, they are so much more than that. What really sits the DBT's apart are the lyrics. If you grew up in a small town in the south anytime in the past 25 years, my guess is that half these songs will have you saying "I know that guy!!" These songs are novels boiled down to five minutes and set to great music. Do yourself a favor - purchase this disc and, if you don't already have it (and why don't you?), get Southern Rock Opera.


Rock N' Roll is alive again   September 27, 2003
dj_wacker (Seattle, WA United States)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Incredibly talented band. This, their newest album, is their best yet. All three of the band's songwriters, Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, and Jason Isbell, are great. I like Jason Isbell's song, Outfit, the best on this album, but they are all fresh. His guitar playing is monumental. Mike Cooley has a great deep voice and writes songs that would read well as short stories. Patterson Hood, a natural frontman, kicks the album off with a rolling story song that grabs me every time I hear it. This band has been appropriately compared to Lynard Skynard. The suprising thing is that they pull off that southern feel without sounding cheesy, sarcastic, or imitative. This is the logical extension of southern influenced rock and punk that should of came out of the seventies. These guys may have even been capable of saving music in the eighties. Too bad they were too young. If you like guitars and good songs without any of the bs spandex eighties nonsense, buy this album, pop open a beer, and rock the hell out.


From the first lyric I was hooked....   November 14, 2003
K. V. Skelton (Eastern TN United States)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

I had heard of DBT for several years, especially from the highly complimentary reviews of Southern Rock Opera. With the release of Decoration Day I was finally moved to give them a listen, so I picked up this cd without ever having heard the group.

From the opening lines of the first track I was sold. More than mere rockers, DBT are storytellers, with their songs covering a wide spectrum. From the fantastic song "Outfit", which was inspired by advice given Jason Isbell by his Father...to the contrasting views of Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood regarding the suicide of a mutual friend (the songs "When the Pin Hits the Shell" and "Do It Yourself", respectively) Decoration Day illustrates the breadth of this group's songwriting talent. The title cut is especially moving to me. Describing a feud between two families, this song is so real, so...well...Southern, that it still draws me into the story every time I listen to it.

This is what Southern Rock *should* be! This is where being rough and rowdy meets intelligence and passion, and the DBT give us music that is driving, sincere and real. This is heart and soul, and sweat and blood.

I have only mentioned a few of the killer songs you'll find on this cd. Go ahead, even if you haven't heard the Drive-By Truckers take the chance! I did...and it was well worth the risk!!!