Drive By Truckers...

Well, reviews of the DBT record A Blessing And A Curse have been pretty average. And by average I mean there are some glowing ones and some disappointed ones therefore the average would be probably be about middling. Of course some records you can trust the critics and others you just have to judge for yourself. Either that or you're a fan and you're going to buy the thing no matter what. For me DBT is important to American music for a couple of reasons: 1) they do it their way and damn the torpedoes, I've always admired that. 2) There aren't a lot of bands that play straight up rock with no tongue in cheek, with a reverence for the traditions they're mining, with passion for their songs. On that last point we could debate a list for the rest of the day I guess I'm thinking about bands like My Morning Jacket, DBT, Magnolia Electric Co., Centro-Matic, add your own. These are all bands (and single songwriters in some cases) that make records with a palpable feel to them that I can only describe as passionately desperate. I guess by that I mean that they feel as if they've been invested with everything that these bands can spare and then some: heart, soul, passion. In sports terms these guys are leaving it all on the floor, ice, field.

I've digressed again haven't I? My bottom line is that you can nitpick at Drive By Truckers' A Blessing And A Curse, make vague comparisons to their past efforts, but in the end any disappointment that one feels with this record is inevitably along the lines of "it's good but it's not Dirty South or Southern Rock Opera". And if that's the way that this debate will be framed let's just come out and say that A Blessing And A Curse is a damn good record by a band that has made fucking good records in the past. Know what I mean?

I'm feeling this.

1 from A Blessing And A Curse:

Daylight

At six minutes it was too big to post but if you get a chance check out "Goodbye" on this album. Don't just listen to it once but a couple of times. Great song.