Ambitious and compelling.  


Those are two words rarely used to describe many southern rock bands. The Drive-by Truckers are different, though. “Brighter Than Creation’s Dark” is their eighth album of fusing Lynyrd Skynyrd riffs with R.E.M intellectualism. There’s no story line like their magnum-opus “Southern Rock Opera,” but the concept of the album is just as convincing; working class folks trying to make sense out of a chaotic world.  

Each song is presented as a black and white sketch of a story that allows the imagination to fill in the details; a thirty something guy who doesn’t know god but fears his wrath in “The Righteous Path,” the soldier home from Iraq who can’t shake the memory of “The Man I Shot,” the middle-aged “Bob,” who still lives with his mother. “Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife” strikes despairingly close to home.  A man reaches the afterlife and is confused to find his family there with him.  Hood says he wrote the song “to make some kind of peace with an unspeakable tragedy that so-affected some many people I know and love.” It was obviously written about the horrific death of Richmond musician Brain Harvey and his family two years ago.  

 Mike Cooley’s expressive baritone and Patterson Hood’s signature high pitched vocals are augmented by the new feminine presence of bassist Shonna Tucker on three songs. Their three guitar attack has been softened somewhat by the departure of Jason Isbell and the addition of steel guitarist John Neff.  But change is a constant for the Drive-by Truckers and, just like the people in their songs, they have learned to adjust and continue in a new, more mature direction.

Listen for songs from Drive-by Truckers album “Brighter Than Creation’s Dark” all this week on Paul Shugrue’s new music show “Out of the Box” on Hampton Roads public radio 89.5 WHRV Monday through Thursday from 7pm until 9pm, Saturday afternoon from 1pm to 5pm and on-demand at www.whrv.org/outofthebox.