Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Hundred Word Highlights - November 2012


 ...when ninety-nine and a half won't do.


Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance
Ato Records

The Drive-By Truckers frontman’s third solo record is also his best. The fallout from an unfinished novel, these songs exhibit the same southern literacy Hood is known for, but this time the themes are slightly interwoven, like flashbacks and echoes rumbling in the distance. Crunchy guitar anthems are traded for introspective tunes punctuated by banjo, pedal steel, piano and cello, then fleshed out with lines like the sky was as gray as an open chord. With help from fellow Truckers, Centro-Matic and vocalist Kelly Hogan, Patterson Hood has explored the forces of his nature and crafted a work of art.



The Georgia Bootleg Box
Evil Teen Records

Webster’s definition of juggernaut doesn’t include guitar, bass and drums, but if he gave a listen to these sixty-two slabs of bluesy rock from three successive nights in April 1996 during the band’s slash and burn swath through Athens, Atlanta and Macon, he’d be more than willing to reconsider. Warren Haynes, one of the best true rock guitarists of the day, leads bassist Allen Woody and drummer Matt Abts, with help from fellow guitar slingers Derek Trucks and Tinsley Ellis, through Mule catalog stalwarts and covers from Little Feat, the Grateful Dead, Blind Faith, ZZ Top, Steppenwolf, and Chuck Berry.

Curtis Lynch
November 2012