Patterson Hood grew up in Florence Alabama, across the Tennessee River from Muscle Shoals. Patterson began writing songs when he was in third grade and began playing guitar in bands at about 14. His father is David Hood of the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (Who played with Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Cliff, Traffic, The Staple Singers, Bob Seger, Paul Simon, Rod Stewart...). In 1985 he began a band with college roommate Mike Cooley. The band, Adam’s House Cat, played together for six years, making an EP and a finished (but still unreleased) album Town Burned Down. They also were 1st Place Winners in Musician Magazine’s Best Unsigned Band Contest and their song "Smiling At Girls" appeared on Warner Bros./ Musician Compilation (Best of the BUBS) in 1988.
After Adam’s House Cat broke up, Cooley and Hood moved to Memphis and later to Auburn AL. playing shows as an acoustic duo (Virgil Kane) and in a band (Horse Pussy) before going separate ways. Hood settled in Athens GA. in early 1994, playing solo anywhere they would let him. In 1996 he and Cooley reunited and formed Drive-By Truckers. In 1998 they released their first of six albums to date and hit the road with a vengeance. Nearly 2000 shows later, Drive-By Truckers is one of the most critically acclaimed bands in America.
DBT first gained national recognition for their sprawling double CD Southern Rock Opera in 2001. Although initially released independently, SRO received a 4 star review from Rolling Stone Magazine and was eventually picked up by Lost Highway Records in 2002.
The making of Southern Rock Opera was a very turbulent period that nearly broke up the band and took its toll on all of the members’ personal lives. Hood went through a divorce during that period and, like the cliché goes, wrote a ton of new songs. Many of those songs ended up on Decoration Day but a separate (solo) album also emerged. Hood recorded Killers and Stars by himself in his kitchen in early March 2001. The album was never really intended for release, but a few homemade copies were burned and sold at solo shows and it became a bit of an underground collectable.
In 2004, Patterson decided to make Killers and Stars "officially" available by releasing it on New West Records (also home to DBT). The album is somewhat quieter and spookier than DBT’s releases, but it shares some of the same vibe and humor. Killers and Stars has 12 songs, simply featuring acoustic guitars, mandolin and harmony vocals. It features "Uncle Disney" which Patterson has been performing frequently at DBT shows, as well as "Old Timers Disease", "Phil’s Transplant", and Hood’s cover of Tom T. Hall’s "Pay No Attention To Alice".
Patterson’s second solo release, MURDERING OSCAR (and other love songs), is nearly finished. The record features Patterson’s father David Hood, as well as Brad Morgan, David Barbe, John Neff and Don Chambers, Oreinda Fink of Azure Ray and Will Johnson and Scott Danbom from Centro-Matic. He plans to finish mixing in mid-December.
Patterson Hood plans to spend 2007 playing solo shows and writing new songs.
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