Best of Rock

Jordi Vidal/Redferns

BEST ROAD WARRIORS – DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS

This is true road-warrior math: Singer-guitarist Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers estimates that the Athens, Georgia, band has played close to 2,000 shows in 15 years. It did 120 gigs just in 2010, “not including radio stuff and record-store appearances,” Hood, 47, says. “I was gone 205 days last year ”“ which is too many.”

But when Hood ”“ ironically, the son of a studio musician ”“ and singer-guitarist Mike Cooley started the group in 1996, they had already spent their twenties “in a band that didn’t get anywhere,” as Hood puts it. “We had been on the verge of a record deal, one after the other, and had nothing to show for it. We went into this band knowing it was our last chance. We hit the road with a vengeance. Off nights were not acceptable.” Or as the Truckers put it in a song on 2001’s Southern Rock Opera, ”˜Shut Up and Get on the Plane.’

And the Truckers bring the might every night, blowing through stories of working-class love and hell with a heavy electric tornado of arena boogie, country-renegade rock and deep-blue Southern R&B. Shows run well over two hours, but there is almost never a set list. Hood, Cooley, drummer Brad Morgan, bassist Shonna Tucker, guitarist John Neff and keyboard player Jay Gonzalez agree on the first number on their way to the stage. After that, Hood says, “it’s based on how we listen to each other and how we read the audience.”

“Sometimes it can train-wreck,” he admits, “and we have to figure out a way to redeem ourselves.” At that point, the Truckers turn to reliable killers like ”˜Lookout Mountain,’ from 2004’s The Dirty South. “It’s a good thumb-crushing riff,” Hood crows of the song, “pretty much no-fail.”