This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
“We ain’t never gonna change,” vows Patterson Hood on The Dirty South. That’s just fine with me. And with everybody else who’s figured out that Drive-By Truckers are the most vital Southern rock band since some good ole boys named Skynyrd.
If there’s any justice in the music biz, this searingly gritty sixth set from these Georgia slammers oughta seal the deal once and for all. Picking up roughly where previous CDs Decoration Day and Southern Rock Opera left off, DBT’s three-guitar, three-songwriter, three-vocalist lineup hit their stride here, unspooling 14 magnificently ragged, raw-boned roots-rockers that are often reminiscent of Crazy Horse at their angriest. And at their most eloquent — the band’s uncompromising musical heft is more than matched by the intensity of these unequivocally dark tales of killer tornadoes, Buford Pusser, moonshiners, downsized auto workers, Richard Manuel, scarred veterans, cancer patients, stock car racers and Carl Perkins’ Cadillac.
Despite what Patterson says, though, it’s obvious the Truckers have indeed changed — they’ve become even better than they were a year ago. And that’s just fine with me too.
