Drive-By Truckers

[Jahfin]

10 years ago today, the Drive-By Truckers performed the first of two acoustic house concerts at Pine Hill Farm in Durham, NC. The second one was held on June 26th, 2002, shortly after Jason Isbell joined the band. These historic concerts would later serve as the inspiration for The Dirt Underneath shows in 2007. These never before seen photos were provided courtesy of Tommy Swinney.

The setlist, via OneOfTheseDays.org:

1. Heathens

2. The Boys From Alabama

3. Marry Me

4. Goode's Field Road

5. Panties In Your Purse

6. The Tough Sell

7. The Company I Keep

8. Stupid Song

9. My Sweet Annette

10. Old Timer's Disease

11. One Of These Days

12. Sink Hole

13. Mizen Was American

14. Tornadoes

15. Daddy's Cup

16. Days Of Graduation

17. Ronnie and Neil

18. 72 (This Highway's Mean)

19. Dead, Drunk, and Naked

20. Guitar Man Upstairs

21. Cassie's Brother

22. The Southern Thing

23. Women Without Whiskey

24. Zip City

25. Let There Be Rock

26. Shut Up and Get On The Plane

27. Greenville To Baton Rouge

28. Bulldozers and Dirt

29. Angels and Fuselage

30. Keep On Smilin'

[Jahfin]

10 Great Songs About Hating Your Job (Paste)

[Jahfin]

For anyone that's ever heard the Drive-By Truckers' "Sands of Iwo Jima" or seen the documentary about them called The Secret To A Happy Ending, you're familiar with who George A. is. I think each of us has had someone like George A. in our lives. For me, it was my Grandfather, a night owl like myself who loved to stay up watching the late late show on TV into the wee hours of the morning.

GEORGE A. JOHNSON - It's A Wonderful Life (May 26, 1920 - October 24, 2011)

by Patterson Hood on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 11:31am

My beloved Great Uncle passed away yesterday. He was actually more like a second father to me. As a child, I spent every single weekend of my life with him on his farm from before I was two until I was a teenager and became too busy trying to chase girls to want to be out at the farm riding go-karts anymore. I'm sure he was sad when that happened, but he never made me feel bad about it as he knew that it was the way of the world and how it was supposed to be.

When George A. was born, President Wilson was in the White House. He lived to see 17 Presidents. Imagine someone who was alive for George Washington living to see the Lincoln assassination. When he was a little boy, they rode into town on horseback and he lived to see a man on the moon. He lived through the Great Depression and survived Iwo Jima in World War II. He was born a white man in the deep segregated Jim Crow South and lived to cast his vote for Barak Obama in the 2008 election at the age of 88. I felt like he was as proud of that as I was.

After WWII, George A. took a job delivering trucks for International Harvester in Springfield, Ohio but his family ties were so strong that he commuted home every weekend to McGee Town Alabama to help out his parents on the homestead farm. He was born in the front room of the old three-room house, along with my Grandmother and their other brother. (Two other siblings were lost in the influenza epidemic of 1918). The farm was deeded to The Johnson Family when Alabama became a state and his ties to it were unimaginably strong. His mother passed away in December 1963 (watching As The World Turns at my Grandmother's kitchen table) and I was born three months later and George A. and I were inseparable from day one.

Every Friday afternoon he would ride the bus home from wherever his last delivery was (he delivered new trucks to the dealers) and I would ride out to the farm with him and stay there all weekend. We'd stay up late and watch movies on TV and I'd spend all day playing on the farm which looked more like a park. Sometimes he'd take me to movies in town and when I was a little boy I would sit in his lap while he bush-hogged the farmland. Later when I became of go-kart age, he would cut paths in the field resembling a city grid with on ramps and off ramps for my cousin Tommy and I to play chase through. We did play Bullitt, just like the song says. Later we would stay up and watch Saturday Night Live and on Sunday, he would take me back home to my parent's house and then ride all night on a Greyhound Bus, back to Cincinnati then hop a ride up to Springfield to repeat the process again.

George A. never married. He was very handsome, Gary Cooper handsome, and women always seemed to really like him but he was painfully shy and always on the move. I think at times he wished that he had, but he never really talked about that kind of thing much. I do know that he always considered me to be the son he never had and as I said, he was a second father to me. (I really hit the jackpot on the Dad thing, as my real Dad is such a great man and I also had an amazing Grandfather in my life).

George A. was very tall, over 6 foot 5, in an era when not many men were six feet tall. He was thin and kind of lanky, but very athletic and strong. He had beautiful blue eyes that I still see when I look into my own children's eyes. They seem to be inheriting his sweetness also and I am very thankful for that. As shy as he was, he always opened up around children. Always had and did all the way until the very end. He was one of those 'kid magnets' you hear about, in the best of ways. My little boy isn't old enough to remember him, but my daughter Ava bonded with him very strongly and absolutely loved him, as did my sister's kids. He would absolutely light up when kids were around and he and I had an uncanny communication that defied his reputation for shyness. He was funny and smart and full of great stories about the old days and his beloved old horse Old Robinson, who took on superhero greatness in GA's stories as he grew older.

One time, George A. was riding Old Robinson back from town down by the old Forks of Cypress plantation place and Ghost Bridge. I'm assuming George A . was a teenager, which would have made it around 1935 perhaps. In those days, the old bridge was already decrepit and creepy with one lane across the old Cypress Creek crossing below the big columned house on the hill. The supports and guardrails were already rusty and the planks lay across the support beams in parallel rows with gaps between them that you could see through to the swollen creek running below. He and Old Robinson were perhaps running a little fast and the horse's legs fell through two of the gaps. He was stuck, down to his belly on the bridge with his legs and hooves dangling below him. George A. jumped off and ran the whole rest of the way to their farm to get help, some big strong Johnson men and their horses, to hoist the poor animal off his precarious position. GA was just hoping that he wouldn't be too late to save his beloved partner.

When George A. and the men and the animal help returned, about four miles, which is a long sprint by foot, Old Robinson was standing next to the bridge, patiently waiting on them to return. He was banged up and bleeding, but was otherwise unscathed and soon was as good as new. I remember George A. telling me that story a time or two as a child, but as he reached 90 or so, it became a story that he would tell me every time that I saw him. Usually he'd ask me if I remembered Old Robinson. I would smile and say that I thought Old Robinson was probably a little before my time but that I felt like I knew him. Then he'd tell me the story again.

The farm was the final destination for all of the old cars from our family that the original owners had updated from. George A. worked very hard and had no children of his own, so he was exceptionally generous with his money when it came to his family. He was known to slide a family member a down payment on a new car (or sometimes buy it right out) and take their old car. The farm was home to a white 59 Ford (like a sedan version of the classic Perry Mason car), an old black Studebaker with the machine gun styled emergency brake and front grill. (Maybe one of the coolest cars ever built). An old Nash that he would hide chewing gum and candsy in for the kids to find when they came out to see him; a 1964 Chevy Impala that he had just bought for his mother when she passed and he subsequently gave to my Grandfather who put a couple of hundred thousand miles on it commuting to and from Brown's Ferry Nuclear Power Plant and a 1971 Dodge sedan. There was also a 52 Chevy parked and rusting on the main hill where once his brother saw a copperhead sunning itself on the front seat. When I was born, I was brought home from the hospital in the 64 Impala (just like the one later made famous by Dr. Dre, but without the bouncy suspension) and at about 12, I learned to drive on the three on a tree column in the Studebaker. Once I outgrew my go-kart, I could be seen driving that 59 Ford around the farm (and perhaps a little on the county roads around the farm, but don't tell Mom and Dad).

When Mike Cooley and I started Adam's House Cat, George A. "loaned" us some money to buy a little PA system to practice and play shows with. (The concept of clubs having sound was a foreign concept in my town back then). He never liked Rock and Roll music and never once came to see me play, but he knew that it was all somehow very important to me and he was always beyond supportive. Mike loved him too. Everyone that met him always did. What a sweet wonderful man he was and you always had a good feeling anytime you were around him. I never saw him angry or upset. When tragedy struck, he was always calm and stoic and a quiet beacon of strength. When my Grandmother passed away he was obviously heartbroken, but as strong as ever. She was probably the person on Earth that he was the closest to. His older brother had passed a few years earlier and the three Johnson siblings were a force of nature.

Years later, I wrote a song about George A. called "The Sands of Iwo Jima". I attempted to capture a little of the essence of this great man in word and felt like I had at least scratched the surface a little. I was very proud of the song and took my acoustic guitar out to see him and sang it to him. Don't really know if it was his cup of tea, but I think he appreciated the sentiment. His response was "This isn't going to cause people to start coming out to the farm to interview me and put TV cameras in my face, is it?"

I assured him that no such thing would ever happen and that was that.

A few years later, filmmaker Barr Weissman decided to make a movie about Drive-By Truckers and from which we came, and he trekked out to GA's farm and did exactly that. He spent half a day out at the farm while GA graciously showed him the sink hole and the two barns and probably told him about Old Robinson and then he built a fire in the old iron Big Boy Stove in the front room where he was born and we sat there while tiny Ava Ruth slept in his still strong arms. It is one of my most prized memories and was the beginning of their beautiful relationship.

It was an amazing and wonderful life and he lived it his own way with dignity and grace. He was a sober man. I never saw him take a single drink in my entire life, yet never felt like he was judging me. One time we parked our cars out at the farm when the band was taking off for a long cross country tour and he cleaned my car for me while I was gone. Lord knows what he might have found, but it was never acknowledged. I think he knew that I was a fairly responsible adult and would be alright. I think he was proud of the fact that I persevered and did this thing that I had set my sights on when I was a little child playing air guitar in that front room to the stereo he bought me.

He was 88 before he had to leave the farm and move in with my Mom, and not long after that we had to "fix" his Cadillac so that it wouldn't start anymore because he was getting a little confused and we were worried about his driving. At 90, his only daily meds were the two blood thinner pills he took everyday for his last decade or so, and he managed to only have to live in a nursing home for the last two months of his life. There was a minimum of suffering and even though he was in mid stages of Alzheimer's, he still knew who he was and had a fairly decent notion of who those of us around him were. This certainly wouldn't have been the case for much longer and as much as I am sad and miss him, I am grateful for that.

Tom Brokaw wrote his best selling book about The Greatest Generation and even then they were fading fast. I recently lost my beloved Great Aunt Blanche a couple of months ago. She was George A.'s sister-in-law and very much the matriarch of my extended family. She had lost her husband nearly two decades ago and my Grandmother, "Sissy" passed away back in 2002 while I was playing in New Orleans. Our links to their time in our world are passing before us as our rapidly changing world forges on into tomorrow.

Now George A. is gone too. Gone, at least in the mortal flesh realm. He's still very much alive in me and in the millions of things he influenced in our family's lives. He's still very much alive in my darling children's eyes and in how they possess his sweetness of way. He's still alive walking around the homestead, picking up limbs and chainsawing the stump and bush-hogging the floorboarding field and in the warmth in my heart when I think of him. As the sun sets, facing the front of the old falling-in house, no longer shadowed by my favorite old oak tree, he's still standing there on the front porch as I drive off, watching my taillights disappear into the dusk. And waving goodbye.

Patterson Hood - October 25th 2011 (Back Lounge, Minneapolis MN, 1st and 7th)

[Jahfin]

From the Drive-By Truckers' Facebook page:

To celebrate DBT-FB's 100,000 Like, we've posted the album Town Burned Down by Adam's House Cat, Patterson Hood and Cooley's band from 1985-1991. This album contains original versions of "Lookout Mountain" and "Buttholeville". You can also access the album via DBT-FB's main page. Look for the 'Adam's House Cat!' link on the left. We'll keep the album up for a week. Enjoy and Thank all 100K of Y'all!

[Driver8]

Is threedimesdown.com still operational?

[Jahfin]

Is threedimesdown.com still operational?

Yes, it is:

threedimesdown.com

[Driver8]

It's been prompting a white page, 404 error page maybe, at least for the last two days...

[Jahfin]

It's been prompting a white page, 404 error page maybe, at least for the last two days...

You might want to try a different browser. I don't seem to have any trouble accessing the site. I'm using Google Chrome.

[Driver8]

Don't know what the problem is. I've tried Firefox and Chrome. At home I have Safari. Unless there is a geographical restriction...

[Jahfin]

Click on the poster below for more info on these shows.

[Jahfin]

From the Drive-By Truckers' Facebook page:

To celebrate DBT-FB's 100,000 Like, we've posted the album Town Burned Down by Adam's House Cat, Patterson Hood and Cooley's band from 1985-1991. This album contains original versions of "Lookout Mountain" and "Buttholeville". You can also access the album via DBT-FB's main page. Look for the 'Adam's House Cat!' link on the left. We'll keep the album up for a week. Enjoy and Thank all 100K of Y'all!

For those interested, Patterson Hood looks back on the Adam's House Cat days here.

[Jahfin]

I didn't see this one coming. Shonna Tucker announces her departure from the Drive-By Truckers:

Hello friends,

Unfortunately, I come to you all with some sad news. It's time for me to move on to the next great thing, whatever that may be. I want to thank each and everyone of you, with my whole heart for your overwhelming kindness and support over the years. You are the greatest fans in the world! You really do amaze and inspire me. I can't express how much you all mean to me. Your rock solid encouragement has carried me through, many nights. I have been so lucky to have had the chance to meet and talk with so many of you. Your stories and passion are so incredibly inspirational to me. I am, without a doubt, not done. I will have a website up and running very soon so that we can keep in touch. I have a whole lot left to say and do, and I can't wait to hear what all of you are up to. This is very difficult, so I'll leave you with this... for now... Thank you all so much! Safe travels and Happy Holidays to you all! See you soon somewhere...

All my love, Shonna

[Jahfin]

Patterson Hood's Statement About Shonna Leaving the Band

Y'all:

As word starts to spread, we have to confirm that Shonna Tucker has left Drive-By Truckers.

We all love and respect her and wish her all of the best in everything she sets out for.

Shonna joined the band the last week of 2003 and has played on some of our best recordings.

She logged in over 1000 shows and was also a major part of our records with Bettye LaVette and Booker T. Jones.

Her charm and spark will be irreplaceable and her part in our last decade of this band's history is indisputable.

We will share in our fans missing of her.

DBT does plan to carry on and continue forward.

We have major shows planned for New Years Eve weekend as well as our 40 Watt / Nuci's Space / Athens Homecoming.

We have long been planning on doing less touring in this next year but do intend to begin recording our next album at some point in the not too distant future.

David Barbe will be playing bass in our upcoming shows. He has been part of the DBT family since 2000.

We appreciate our fans and supporters and your caring and concern.

Decisions like this are not made lightly so we ask that you respect all parties in regards to our privacy in this matter. Everyone involved deeply cares for each other.

Love and Rock,

Patterson

[Jahfin]

From the first night of Cooley's two night stand in Birmingham, AL this week:

[Jahfin]

The first interview Patterson and Cooley have done since Shonna Tucker's departure from the Drive-By Truckers last month (as least as far as I'm aware of), courtesy of the Washingtonian website. You won't find any revelations here on the latest lineup change in the Truckers but there is a bit of insight given into where they might be going from here.

[Jahfin]

Meanwhile, last night in Athens...

[Jahfin]

This was presented to the Truckers in honor of their homecoming run at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA this weekend:

[Pez_Fartola]

the Drive-By Truckers are a very nerdy band and their songs mostly sound the same and a lot of their fans are nerds.

[Jahfin]

[Pez_Fartola]

P U that really stunk.

[Jahfin]

[Jahfin]

From Conan O'Brien's show circa 2004:

[Jahfin]

The Truckers announce a new, temporary bassist.

Y'ALL:

We're a couple of weeks away from our spring tour, which this year will be two legs the first taking us to Colorado, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. The second leg, in April, will take us to Alabama, Florida, Virginia, North and South Carolina then (nearly) back home to Georgia. For these shows, we are proud and pleased to announce that we will be joined on bass by old friend and partner in Rock, Matt Patton. Matt is the bass player in The Dexateens, one of our favorite bands. I had the honor of working with him a few years back when I co- produced their Hardwire Healing album. The Teens don't play out nearly enough these days and we are thrilled to have him out with us for a couple of months.

As I've said before, we won't be naming a permanent member anytime too soon. This is an "off" year with limited touring and a lot of other activities on our plate. David Barbe played bass on much of my upcoming solo album, and the plan is still to have him play on our next album, which we are not starting any time soon, so the plan could change before that happens.

At any rate, the last thing we want to do is rush into anything right now, as we've repeatedly said we want some time off and I want to see where that break leads us, musically and otherwise.

At any rate, Matt Patton is a fantastic player and he brings a very cool energy (and tons of fun) to the stage. We look forward to crossing the country with him and based on the practice we had recently, it's going to be a blast. I look forward to seeing many of you there.

Long Live Rock!

Patterson Hood

Drive-By Truckers

PS: Congrats to Cooley on 5/SOLD OUT Solo Shows. The two I caught were incredible and I hope he does more in the not too distant.

[Jahfin]

For the first time since she left the Truckers Shonna Tucker talks about her solo career, specifically her appearance this weekend at the 40 Watt as part of a tribute to the release of Cracker's debut album.

Life after Truckers (from Online Athens)

[Jahfin]

Shonna Tucker's first public performance since leaving the Drive-By Truckers. This was recorded at the 40 Watt in Athens, GA last night during the final night of a three day celebration of the release of Cracker's debut record. The band, named Eye Candy, includes, in addition to Shonna, John Neff (guitar, sitar, pedal steel), Bo Beddingfield (guitar) and Clay Leverett (drums).