adrian varnam

Originally published in encore magazine on March 3^rd, 2010.

It’s been a long time since the Clinton administration ruled the office. The world seemed simpler and safer then. The internet was new and exciting. MTV actually played music, and new bands did it the old-fashioned way through incessant touring, sleeping on couches, and begging anyone and everyone to listen. Today, there seem to be few bands left from that era who continue to evolve, persevere and carve their own path in such a relentless manner. Then again, there are few bands like the Drive-By Truckers.

Formed in the mid-to-late ‘90s in Athens, Georgia, while Bill was still president, the Truckers are an entity unlike any other. With a distinct Southern- and classic-rock sound, supported by a collective singing and songwriting core, the band has forged their way through an unforgiving industry by never giving up, never compromising and doing it themselves every step of the way. Founding member Mike Cooley says it was what he and fellow Trucker Patterson Hood wanted from the very beginning; although, no one ever said it was going to be easy.

“From the time we started this band, and started touring, there were plenty of times when it sucked,” Cooley reveals. “But I don’t think there was ever any time when everybody was throwing up their hands, because as tough as it got, there was always belief. And it wasn’t just a blind faith, pipe-dream either; it was there. We could see it happening, little by little. We just believed that it would come together, and turning back wasn’t really an option. We really wanted to see it through.”

And they have—through thousands of shows, significant line-up changes and several record labels. Although a lot has happened throughout the years, the one constant has been the music. It’s what Cooley and company do best, and it’s most certainly the common thread that has kept them striving and moving forward all this time, especially when it comes to the creative process itself.

“It’s kind of a happy place for us: going in to record a new record,” he says. “The shows and touring are a lot of fun in their own way, but we get to the studio, and there’s nobody there but us. It feels good. We don’t have to pack up and move somewhere to the next place. We can do what we do for a while and work.” The latest result is The Big To-Do. Slated for release on March 16th, it’s the band’s eighth studio album and first release with their new label, ATO Records. As always the prodigious Truckers approached this project like most of their previous: with plenty of material to choose from, providing the option of creating the best and most coherent album that they could at the time. With longtime producer David Barbe at the helm once again, Cooley says it was a comfortable and familiar place for the band to bring as much as they could to the project.

“We actually went in and recorded somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 tracks over the course of all the sessions,” he says. “It started looking very obvious that there was this group of songs that was one album, and then we had all these others that all kind of fit together, too, in their own way. So we put those 13 tracks together and put it out first. They’re more rock ‘n’ roll, [from] start to finish, than the last record, but they fit.”

Cooley reveals that, although he didn’t initially bring as much original material to the table as in previous records, the end product does showcase what has become a staple of recent Drive-By Truckers’ records: a fairly balanced contribution from several different songwriters within the band, including bassist and singer Shonna Tucker. Although Hood is seen by many to be the band’s leading songwriter in a lot of ways, Cooley has come into his own as an equal contributor and cohort. As the two founding and original members of the band, it’s a relationship that’s been allowed to evolve many times throughout the years to get to that point.

“We just kind of figured out that there was this thing we could do together,” he says. “I mean, we had some rocky roads here and there, trying to figure out how to allow each other to be who we are individually and do what we do together, and let that be what it is. But you come through that or you figure it out. We just got older, really, and we don’t hang out together and drive each other crazy. We pretty much reserve it to doing what we do and being friends on a level where we can do all those things. And we are, at the end of the day, great friends.”

It’s that friendship, combined with hard work, determination and dedication, is what has kept Cooley, Hood and the Drive-By Truckers together after all these years. Long after most bands have packed it up and gone home, the Truckers continue to make great records, playing sold out shows to a rabid fanbase, attracting more listeners with every effort, and making a living for themselves and their families, all on their own terms. Cooley says he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“For me, I don’t know how else you can do it and survive,” he says. “When you’re in your 20s and trying to get this thing going, and you have all this pressure to have something to show for yourself, and you get frustrated, and you’re wanting to make it, make it, make it—whatever that means—and all the frustrations and setbacks come along, and people just aren’t ‘gettin’ it’, you kind of take out your frustrations on each other. And then you get older and realize, ‘What the hell is ‘makin’ it,’ anyway?’ Let’s just do what we do. And we have, our own way. I mean, if I were a pretty face and a good dancer, I guess I would let somebody make a few more decisions for me. . . . But I’m neither.”

The Drive-By Truckers perform this Friday, March 5th, at the Greenfield Lake Amphitheater. Gates open at 5:30 and the show begins at 6pm, with opening act David Barbe and the Quick Hooks. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 the day of the show, and can be purchased from Gravity Records, Revolution 9,wwww.1067thepenguin.com, or from www.drivebytruckers.com.

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