Truckers stop in Charleston

Latest recording, a critically acclaimed 'Creation's'

Provided/New West Records

Critically acclaimed Athens, Ga.-based Southern rock band the Drive-By Truckers will play a show at the Music Farm tonight.

A favorite among critics, a lot has been said and written about the Drive-By Truckers.

And so it comes as no surprise that their latest offering — 'Brighter Than Creation's Dark' — has been heralded in nearly every publication since its release.

'They let the songwriting speak for itself, and it sings loud and clear,' wrote Robert Christgau in Rolling Stone magazine. Allmusic.com called it a 'dazzling return to form,' while Uncut magazine proclaimed: 'The dirty South's poet-rockers rise again.' And, of course, Paste magazine noted that at more than an hour long, the album is an 'expansive statement.'

'Brighter' is indeed all those things, but what most critics have failed to note is that this album is the Truckers most cinematic of the band's nine albums they've now released.

The closest they've come to the type of visualization found on 'Brighter Than Creation's Dark' would have been 'Opera,' which the band released in 2001.

'They're kind of all like little movies,' Patterson Hood said, 'and each song is like a scene.

'People say we make long albums, but actually we just make short movies, and they're all in the hour-and-10-minute range, which puts us a little short of a Woody Allen movie.

'There's some violence and some sex,' he continued, 'along with some rock 'n' roll.'

Unlike the band's previous albums, most of which have been re-released on vinyl, this one 'in particular was made to be on vinyl.' Which is why some critics — though they haven't necessarily complained — have made it a point to reference it as being a bit lengthy.

The vinyl version of 'Brighter,' however, is broken up into four sides, so to speak.

In either case — the extended CD or the two-album vinyl set — holds up well, but the entire project was conceived, written, recorded, mixed, mastered and even sequenced with the intention that it would eventually be released as a double album.

'The sides break down really well,' Hood explains, 'and even the sequencing is to where there was a definite side one, two, three and four, and there was a lot of thought that went into that order and how it broke up.

'Each side is like a story, and with that long of a record, it might make sense that you just want to play one side. ... All of our records have been an attempt at making that record.'

For anyone who has followed the band, 'Brighter Than Creation's Dark' is a decidedly Truckers-sounding album. It could have been a big concern for a band that last year lost such an essential member in guitarist, singer and songwriter Jason Isbell, who amicably left to pursue a solo career.

The current configuration includes Hood, Mike Cooley (who along with Hood, writes most of the band's material), Brad Morgan, Shonna Tucker (Isbell's ex-wife), John Neff (who became a permanent member after the departure of Isbell), as well as the band's newest member, Spooner Oldham.

'I think there's nothing cooler than a band like U2, that's been together intact without a single personnel change for 30 years,' Hood admits. 'That's great. I applaud them, but that's a magical thing that might get to happen but once in a blue moon.'

Unfortunately, unlike the group's albums, the dynamic of the band's makeup was anything but a perfect image. Instead it got pretty tough, and thus the group decided to take last year off. Well, what that means is they played 58 shows as opposed to more than 200, and Hood released his long-awaited solo album, as well as produced a pair of other projects, including the Dexateens who will be in Charleston with the Truckers

'If I had been talking candidly two years ago,' Hood said, 'I about had enough. We seriously considered breaking up because it just wasn't fun any more.

Everything's cool now.

In fact, ticket sales are up, and even record sales are up, which isn't exactly the top of the charts. But that's something to almost be proud of, nowadays.

Keith Ryan Cartwright is a Colorado-based freelance entertainment journalist.