No Depression - The Bi-monthly Journal of Alt- Country
#46 - July - August 2003
Welcome back to this series after a festive hiatus.We are on far more familiar ground than the last time round when Little Miss Cornshucks was the cover star.
The Drive-By Truckers are no strangers to CCM and have graced these pages on many an occasion.The cover article by Grant Alben concentrates on their move from Soul Dump Records to the much larger New West a favourite of the magazine. It also concentrates on the June 2003 release of the band's 4th album Decoration Day claiming thai it was their first great album.
I got on board with the third album 2001's conceptual Southern Rock Opera album exploring varios concepts through the context of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Crucially Decoration Day as well as being released on a more prominent label sees a change of personnel with a young Jason Isbell joining as the third singer and songwriter alongside Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley. At 24 he was considerably younger than the rest of the band . Indeed Patterson Hood's fist wife when to school with his mother with Mike Cooley going to school with his stepmother. Muscle Shoals is a small town!
Although young Hood described Isbell as an old soul and he brought a whole new dimension to the band with two of his songs Outfit and the title track Decoration Day being the pick of the bunch for me.
In the spirit of harmony I am also featuring Hood's Sink Hole and Cooley's Loaded Gun in the Closet
For the One from the Top I've gone for CCM debutant Kimmie Rhodes with the title track from her 1996 album West Texas Heaven on Justice Records.
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