One of the great political records of last year was one that didn\u2019t get as much coverage as it should have, likely because bigger names dominated the headlines. Indeed, I should have added this to my Best Of 2016 list somewhere, because American Band <\/i>perfectly nails the confusion, anxiety, pride and questioning that comprises what it means to live in our wonderful country\u2026if you\u2019re at all paying attention, that is.<\/p>\n
Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood have shifted gears on the band\u2019s 11th album for the current, the personal and the poignant. The band\u2019s comment about \u201cthe duality of the Southern thing\u201d resonates; a lifelong Georgia resident, Hood moved to Oregon last year, but it\u2019s obvious his heart remains in Dixie. The lyrics of American Band <\/i>concern recent school shootings, the Confederate flag, \u201csurrender under protest,\u201d the meaning of progress when we still can\u2019t treat each other with basic human decency, and so forth. <\/p>\n
Cooley and Hood aren\u2019t exactly liberals, but neither are they Southern-dyed Republicans who give the South a bad name. It\u2019s a safe bet they\u2019re not Trump supporters \u2013 certainly, some of the lyrics here seem to contradict Fox News talking points \u2013 and this duality makes the record stronger, because it allows for lyrical and musical honesty. What are we doing here? Is this the best we can do as a country?<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t blather on about 2016 and racism and Trump\u2019s victory and so forth. Others have done that more eloquently and certainly more often. But most Americans will feel a kindred spirit with Drive-By Truckers here, I imagine, on songs like \u201cGuns Of Umpqua\u201d and \u201cFilthy And Fried\u201d and the true-life story-song opener \u201cRamon Casiano.\u201d Musically, the Truckers remain leaders of the Southern rock scene, fusing and modernizing elements of Skynyrd, John Mellencamp, Tom Petty, a little Creedence, and some basic Rolling Stones guitar for good measure. I also noticed an element of the Tragically Hip, the great Canadian alt-rock band what called it quits last year, in the loping, charming songwriting.<\/p>\n
It would be a reach to call this a \u201cprotest record,\u201d but this is certainly one of the most current, righteously angry and yet calm approaches to a political album that has been made in a while. Neil Young\u2019s The Monsanto Years <\/i>and Peace Trail <\/i>attempted this sort of thing but were too rushed and idiosyncratic to succeed, but of course they got more press coverage, because it\u2019s Neil. Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Lemonade <\/i>and Kendrick Lamar\u2019s To Pimp A Butterfly <\/i>were more successful but also more targeted in their attack and, likely, their audience.<\/p>\n
But American Band <\/i>speaks to everyone. It has a good time on \u201cFilthy And Fried\u201d and the Stones boogie of \u201cKinky Hypocrite,\u201d with the line \u201cThe greatest separators of fools and their money \/ Party harder than they\u2019d like to admit.\u201d It calls out immigration, border control and racism on \u201cRamon Casiano,\u201d the shooting of young black men on \u201cWhat It Means,\u201d violence and gun culture on \u201cGuns Of Umpqua\u201d with a measured yet critical eye. It, as all Truckers albums do, mocks the assholes and the egotistical leaders (especially Republicans) who use these events and the true feelings of true Americans for political gain and sloganeering. <\/p>\n
The thing with liberals is that they really don\u2019t understand how people could support Donald Trump and so come up with quick, mostly-inaccurate reasons (\u201cracism,\u201d \u201csexism,\u201d \u201cangry white men,\u201d \u201cthe South\u201d and so forth). The Truckers actually get it, because they come from there and they live there. They just don\u2019t like it. To me, this makes all the difference, because they\u2019re not putting down the average man whose politics are right of center. They\u2019re simply questioning why we are still fighting the same old battles over racism, guns, the Confederate flag and pride, immigration, freedoms and blatant hypocrisy from our \u201cleaders.\u201d What makes us so stuck in our ways? Again, is this really the best we can do?<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s a downside to American Band, <\/i>it\u2019s that the lyrics and mood seem to take precedence over the music, which while exciting and moving where needed doesn\u2019t really variate or resonate throughout the disc like it should. On the other hand, it\u2019s a safe bet this is done on purpose. Anyone who can set aside their right-wing politics and think critically will be moved by what\u2019s here, if not politically then by the sincerity with which Cooley and Hood approach the state of the country and by the personal closer \u201cBaggage,\u201d written to address the suicide of Robin Williams and Hood\u2019s own struggles with depression.<\/p>\n
As \u201cWhat It Takes\u201d says about the police shootings in Florida and Ferguson that spawned #Black Lives Matter: \u201cThey’ll spin it for the anchors \/ On the television screen \/ So we can shrug and let it happen \/ Without asking what it means \u2026 And some man with a joystick \/ Lands a rocket on a comet \/ We’re living in an age \/ Where limitations are forgotten \/ The outer edges move and dazzle us \/ But the core is something rotten.\u201d Indeed. And when we can acknowledge that and talk to each other, we may get somewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":32982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8658],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44764","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-drive-by-truckers","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44764"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44764"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}