Drive By Truckers and Greendale

The Drive By Truckers' front guy Patterson Hood is interviewed in Glide Magazine by Shane Handler:

Q: You talk about the songs fitting together, and The Dirty South seems to fall into a concept album realm, much like Neil Young’s Greendale. But Greendale revolves around idealism, and The Dirty South offers a more realistic message, one in which people don’t have a choice to revolt and try and change the world. Do you agree?

Patterson Hood: I saw Neil Young last summer when he was doing the Greendale tour. I really liked the first two-thirds of the record and then he loses me. It’s kind of like somewhere after Grandpa dies, it’s like an attempted Utopian ending or something that I didn’t get. I say that as the utmost Neil Young fan, but I felt some of the moments on that record were real high points, and there are great songs on there, although some of them were a bit longer than I would have liked them to be. I guess I can say that about some of my songs too. I tend to romanticize the three-minute pop song, but it seems like when I attempt to do it, it comes out at five (laughs).

More on Neil Young’s Greendale concerts and Drive By Truckers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young.

Also, see Nine Bullets for an archive of DBT setlists, bit torrents, and recording information.

---