Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creations Dark (2008)

REVIEW ALLMUSIC (by Mark Deming)

Drive-By Truckers leader Patterson Hood wrote in a post on the band's website that 2007 "was supposed to be our year of taking it easy," but it doesn't seem to have worked out that way, and that's a good thing for everyone concerned. The songwriting bug seems to have bit the Drive-By Truckers sometime after the release of 2006's A Blessing and a Curse, and while that album was a bit short on top-shelf material (at least compared to the band's work since Southern Rock Opera), Brighter Than Creation's Dark is a dazzling return to form, delivering some of their finest, most eclectic, and most mature music to date. The album's strength is a pleasant surprise given the departure of guitarist and tunesmith Jason Isbell, who had become one of the group's most interesting writers, but founding members Hood and Mike Cooley have risen to the occasion with some excellent new songs, and bassist Shonna Tucker (who's also Isbell's ex-wife) steps forward as a composer and lead vocalist on this set with three great songs about broken hearts and the stuff that follows in their wake. Opening with "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife," a song by Hood sung from the perspective of a man who has just died and wonders what will become of his family, Brighter Than Creation's Dark presents 19 portraits of folks struggling to make sense of an increasingly chaotic world, ranging from an alcoholic father ("Daddy Needs a Drink") and a family man struggling to hold onto a little piece of the American dream ("The Righteous Path") to a middle-aged guy whose gotten a little too used to being lonely ("Bob") and an illegal gun dealer running short on options ("Checkout Time in Vegas"). While the Truckers are still a great full-tilt hard rock band, Brighter Than Creation's Dark finds them slowing down and turning down a bit more than usual, and in this case it works well for them — the homey twang of "Lisa's Birthday" and "I'm Sorry Huston" gives new guitarist and pedal steel player John Neff a chance to shine, and the light acoustic arrangement of "Perfect Timing" fits the lyrical portrait of a cheerfully flawed man just fine. And "That Man I Shot" is a blazing, troubling masterpiece in which a soldier home from Iraq can't tear away the memory of a man he killed in combat ("That man I shot, I didn't know him/I was just doing my job, maybe so was he"). It's a tale of the most human consequences of war that's built from equal portions of anger, confusion, and compassion, and it's hard to imagine any other band pulling off its fusion of Southern-fried street smarts and guitar-fueled thunder. It's one of several brilliant moments on Brighter Than Creation's Dark, and less than three weeks into 2008 it's hard not to escape the feeling that with this disc we may already have the best album of the year.

CREDITS
David Barbe: Guitar, Producer, Engineer, Performer, Loops, Mixing, Effects
Mike Cooley: Guitar (Acoustic), Banjo, Guitar, Harmonica, Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Rhythm), Vocals, Arp Echoplex, Harmony
Scott Danbom: Fiddle, Performer
Patterson Hood: Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar, Piano, Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Rhythm), Vocals, Harmony Vocals, Harmony
Brad Morgan: Drums, Tambourine
John Neff: Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar, Pedal Steel, Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Rhythm), Slide Guitar, E-Bow, Lap Steel Guitar
Spooner Oldham: Piano, Organ (Hammond), Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Guest Appearance
Shonna Tucker: Bass, Vocals, Harmony Vocals, Harmony

TRACKS
1 Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife

(Drive-By Truckers, Hood) 3:05
2 Dimes Down

(Cooley, Drive-By Truckers) 3:20
3 The Righteous Path

(Drive-By Truckers, Hood) 4:13
4 I'm Sorry Huston

(Drive-By Truckers, Tucker) 3:11
5 Perfect Timing

(Cooley, Drive-By Truckers) 2:57
6 Daddy Needs a Drink

(Cooley, Drive-By Truckers, Hood, Hood, Morgan, Neff, Oldham, Tucker) 3:48
7 Self Destructive Zones

(Cooley, Drive-By Truckers) 4:12
8 Bob

(Cooley, Drive-By Truckers) 2:15
9 Home Field Advantage

(Drive-By Truckers, Tucker) 5:01
10 The Opening Act

(Drive-By Truckers, Hood) 6:48
11 Lisa's Birthday

(Cooley, Drive-By Truckers) 3:19
12 That Man I Shot

(Drive-By Truckers, Hood) 6:03
13 The Purgatory Line

(Drive-By Truckers, Tucker) 3:48
14 The Home Front

(Drive-By Truckers, Hood) 3:18
15 Checkout Time in Vegas

(Cooley, Drive-By Truckers, Hood, Morgan, Neff, Oldham, Tucker) 2:41
16 You and Your Crystal Meth

(Barbe, Cooley, Drive-By Truckers, Hood, Neff) 2:19
17 Goode's Field Road

(Drive-By Truckers, Hood) 5:28
18 A Ghost to Most

(Cooley, Drive-By Truckers) 4:41
19 The Monument Valley

(Drive-By Truckers, Hood) 4:33

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Rory Gallagher - Biografia

Rory Gallagher é irlandês de nascimento e iniciou o seu sucesso como guitarrista no “power trio” Taste, banda inglesa de rock que alcançou fama no final dos anos 70. Mas, a partir de 1971 ele resolveu seguir carreira solo lançando o cd “Rory Gallagher” e logo em seguida foi convidado a participar do Isle of Whigt Rock Fetsival, famoso festival do qual Jimi Hendrix já havia participado. A partir daí realmente sua carreira decolou e no mesmo ano de 1971 começou a trabalhar o 2º disco chamado “Deuce” onde o objetivo principal era gravar as músicas como um show ao vivo e o resultado foi um álbum com pouca produção e totalmente elétrico. Palavras do próprio Rory: “Eu amo tocar para o povo. O público significa muito para mim. Não é uma coisa vazia. Eu amo gravar também, mas preciso de um contato regular e frequente com o público, porque ele me dá energia!!! “ Daí é possível entender o por quê da gravação de “Deuce” ao vivo. Deste disco vocês vão poder ouvir a música “Crest of a Wave” que tem uma melodia fantástica, um vocal poderoso, forte e um solo de “slide” onde Rory mostra um pouco da sua técnica com sua Fender Strato, sem pedais, que o acompanhou por toda carreira desde os 15 anos de idade!!

A trajetória de Rory Gallagher seguiu com mais 14 trabalhos, entre eles o disco “Calling Card” (um de meus preferidos), de 1976, seu 8º álbum, que foi gravado em Munich, na Alemanha e produzido por Roger Glover, baixista do Deep Purple. A banda era formada por : Gerry McAvoy (baixo), Lou Martin (teclados), Rod de’Ath (bateria e percussão) e Rory Gallagher (vocais, guitarras e harmônica). Deste disco tem uma faixa espetacular que vocês podem ouvir que se chama “Jack-knife Beat”, um ritmo funk com um duelo de Rory com sua voz e guitarra, além de uma bateria bem marcada com o baixo pulsando junto!!

Certa vez, Roger Glover lembrando as gravações com Rory disse: “...uma vez, tarde da noite, Rory estava ao microfone, no estúdio, fazendo uma espécie de sermão, como um pastor, chamando a todos para repetir suas palavras e chamando a Deus. Isto durou toda a noite sempre com muita bebida e risadas. É isto que fez dele um grande astro, um grande “performer” ou seja, a sua habilidade em divertir o público, independente da ocasião.”

Infelizmente, depois de 16 álbuns gravados, muitos shows e grande reconhecimento dentro da comunidade musical Rory Gallagher faleceu em 14 de junho de 1995, após uma cirurgia para transplante de fígado. Bono Vox (U2) na época falou: “Rory foi um dos grandes guitarristas de todos os tempos e um grande cavalheiro, uma pessoa muito simples.”