Southern rock band Drive By Truckers first gained fame with the brilliant double album Southern Rock Opera (2001). The five-piece from Alabama showed on that record an unmistakable Southern rock sound that had not been put down as inspired since Lynyrd Skynyrd. The successor Decoration Day (2003) was just as good and The Dirty South is released a year later. Also on this album, three guitars made
… of leather are pulled in pleasant rock songs like The Day John Henry Died and The Buford Stick. But just as well on The Dirty South you will find (semi-) acoustic and quiet songs like The Sands Of Iwo Jima and Cottonseed. The Drive By Truckers have the rare gift of making coarse-grained, raw music that is pleasant to listen to, lingers, but certainly not unpretentious. There is a great tendency to use the word 'classic' for The Dirty South - just like for Southern Rock Opera and Decoration Day. (RWK)more
