Mike Cooley
Patterson Hood
Brad Morgan
John Neff
Shonna Tucker
Jay Gonzalez
Patterson Hood Solo
The Screwtopians are:
John Neff - Pedal Steel, GTR, Vocal
Will Johnson - GTR, vocal
Scott Danbom - Keyboard, Fiddle, Vocal
David Barbe - Bass, Vocal
Brad Morgan - Drums
Press
Traci Thomas
615-664-1167
traci@thirtytigers.com
Management
Red Light Management
Kevin Morris & Christine Stauder
44 Wall St, 22nd Floor
New York NY 10005
www.redlightmanagement.com
questions? management@drivebytruckers.com
Booking
Matt Hickey
High Road Touring
751 Bridgeway, 3rd Floor
Sausalito, CA 94965
Tel. 415/332-9292
Fax 415/332-4692
http://www.highroadtouring.com
Europe/UK Booking
Danny Bowes
The Agency Group
dannybowes@theagencygroup.com
BRIGHTER THAN CREATION’S DARK
Release date: January 22, 2008
2007 was a year of transition and reinvention for our band, having been on the road almost constantly since the fall of 2001 a break was desperately needed. A little time at home to recharge and perhaps rethink some things.
The blurring of the lines between the personal and the musical has always been an integral part of what this band does and part of what sets it apart from the corporate music machines that dominate so much of pop-culture in the name of what used to be called Rock and Roll. That said, when things go wrong it can become an unbearable situation on levels both personal and artistic. Such is what led to the amicable and mutually desired parting of ways with Jason Isbell in the spring of 2007. He had been an integral part of our musical family for five years and three albums but personal and creative differences brought about the need for change.
Moving .. such a loss seemed at first a daunting challenge. Our band’s survival instincts (much of what has kept mine and Mike Cooley’s partnership alive and well for 22+ years) led us to strip everything down to the essential elements of song and rebuild it from scratch. This led to us booking and playing a semi-acoustic tour we named The Dirt Underneath where we would go out without all of the trappings and decorations of “The Big Rock Show” and put the emphasis on the songs and stories. It also gave us a chance to acquaint everyone with our dear friend John Neff. Neff was a founding member of our band who continued to play on our albums from time to time and he became a full-time part of the touring band a couple of years ago. He’s an excellent guitar player but is best known for his amazing pedal steel abilities. His playing has graced acclaimed albums by Japancakes, The Star Room Boys, Barbara Cue and Lona among many others. During some troubled times, John’s playing was one of the few things we could all agree on.
BRIGHTER THAN CREATION’S DARK
Song By Song by Patterson Hood
Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife was written as a result of trying to make some kind of peace with an unspeakable tragedy that affected so many people I know and love. I was hoping to help with the healing and closure by trying to provide a beautiful song that dwells on the positives of love and family. I knew it was the first song on the album the moment I wrote it.
3 Dimes Down is a Cooley song and he never really discusses any of his lyrics with me or anyone else so I’m not going to do him the disservice of doing so myself except to say Tom T. Hall’s “Week in a Country Jail” is certainly worth checking out for a clue. He played me a 4-track demo he recorded of it one night while we were all working on the Bettye LaVette album and I doubled over in laughter. The second verse may be my all-time favorite on a Drive-By Truckers album.
We were almost through tracking this album when I wrote The Righteous Path. It was the missing piece of the puzzle and I knew it immediately. I played it through for everyone once and then we nailed it in one take. Some songs are just meant to be.
DBT lyric of the day: "So don’t try to change who you are boy, and don’t try to be who you ain’t. And don’t let me catch you in Kendale with a bucket of wealthy-man’s paint." (yeah, I know, it's an Isbell lyric...but it's pretty darn sweet) Most if not all other days I'll do Hood/Cooley lyrics!!!
you guys rock so hard i can't even begin to tell you. patterson hood and mike cooley are two of the best song-writers in music today, and in very different ways. so much so that i wrote a song in which i tried to put myself in patterson's shoes in 1994 when he had just gotten divorced, his band had broken up, and he had moved to athens to start over. the song is called misfit. check it out. it rocks, but not as hard as DBT! btw, of all your songs, my favorite is probably 18 wheels of love. so simple yet effective. and the story patterson tells on the live from austin dvd is amazing. i can relate as i survived a brain tumor earlier this year.
