Drive-By Truckers - The Fine Print: A Collection of Oddities and Rarities (2003-2008) Review
Posted by Mitch Michaels on 09.03.2009
A full new disc of DBT one-offs from the New West era finds a mythical take on George Jones, covers of Tom Petty, Warren Zevon and Bob Dylan and a whole lot more – but can it touch their regular studio albums?
Drive-By Truckers The Fine Print: A Collection of Oddities and Rarities (2003-2008)
2009 New West Records
1. George Jones Talkin’ Cell Phone Blues
2. Rebels
3. Uncle Frank (alternate version)
4. TVA
5. Goode’s Field Road (alternate version)
6. The Great Car Dealer War
7. Mama Bake A Pie
8. When The Well Runs Dry
9. Mrs. Claus’ Kimono
10. Play It All Night Long
11. Little Pony And The Great Big Horse
12. Like A Rolling Stone
There are a lot of bands out there who get tagged with heaps of critical praise but never quite break through to the “big time”. Bands like that seem to have an even shorter shelf-life than one-hit wonders, because critics can be a fickle animal and they rarely live up to the lofty expectations of their one great album.
The Drive-By Truckers have bucked that convention. The band has been making music since the late-90’s, but saw a good deal of critical spotlight fall upon them following the release of 2001’s double concept album Southern Rock Opera - a study of youth and life in southern America filtered through the death of its greatest rock icon, Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The indie album was such a huge hit that Lost Highway picked it up for a bigger distribution deal. Once that ran its course, DBT jumped to New West Records, where they would release their next four studio albums.
Here’s where the Truckers’ story differs from so many other critical favorites – they actually just kept getting better. With each album, they changed up their formula. There was the addition of third songwriter Jason Isbell on Decoration Day, the return to their gritty roots on The Dirty South (an even leaner and more brilliant take on the “Southern Thing” than the band’s breakthrough), the soulful sounds of A Blessing And A Curse and, most recently, the dark and pedal-steel laden turn of Brighter Than Creation’s Dark.
Not only did they prove they were multi-faceted with those releases, they proved that they could grow their audience beyond their core three-axe attack redneck image while maintaining a rough and rowdy live show.
DBT left New West following 2008’s Brighter, but there was still plenty left in the vault. Earlier this year, we got a subdued (for DBT anyway) live package recorded at “Austin City Limits” and now there’s this collection of one-offs that covers the entire New West era. But DBT wasn’t content to just drop a bunch of leftovers in our lap – the band actually returned to the studio to polish up the tracks that would become The Fine Print.
The album kicks off with “George Jones Talkin’ Cell Phone Blues”, a song written about the country legend’s 1999 car wreck. Only the Drive-By Truckers could take the forgotten story of Jones crashing his SUV into a bridge while talking on his cell phone and turn it into both a mythical tribute and a lifestyle warning, but this one does just that. It’s a real testament to frontman Patterson Hood’s amazing storytelling.
Elsewhere on The Fine Print, we find a couple of alternate takes on previously released Truckers material. “Uncle Frank” originally appeared on the 1999 indie album Pizza Deliverance. This one comes off slicker – refined after years of playing it live and more studio experience, and singer Mike Cooley’s vocals are more assured than on the original. There’s also a different arrangement of Brighter’s “Goode’s Field Road”, which loses the brooding darkness of the album version in favor of a more countrified tempo. It’s not a track I’d skip, but I can’t imagine anyone preferring this one over the original.
A full third of the album is made up of covers. Tom Petty’s main character in “Rebels” could have easily leapt from Patterson Hood’s notebook – just a piece of shit guy who might kind of deserve what he’s getting. “Rebels” is actually one of my favorite tracks by TP & The Heartbreakers, but DBT serves it justice here with their sweet chorus of “hey hey heys” and Hood’s earnest delivery. Even better is their take on Warren Zevon’s “Play It All Night Long”. As a DBT bootleg collector, I’ve heard Patterson play this at his live shows and had no clue it was even a cover. Zevon’s version is tongue in cheek, but DBT’s is full of spit and fire (“Sweet Home Alabama/Play that dead band’s song/Turn those speakers up full blast/Play it all night long”) and will no doubt take fans back to not only Southern Rock Opera’s Skynyrd theme, but the cancer conspiracy of “Puttin’ People On The Moon”. Fine Print also features a contemporary take on Tom T. Hall’s wartime screed “Mama Bake A Pie” and a loose reading of Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone”, which serves as a fun closer.
Still, the originals shine brightest on this collection. The Jason Isbell-written “TVA” could be his greatest songwriting ever (a lofty statement) – an acoustic masterpiece about how a dam became the cornerstone of a southern family. The song is just another example of how DBT has always found the human heart of a story. It also stands in stark contrast to “Uncle Frank”, which tells of how another TVA-built dam ruined a man’s life.
Then you have Cooley’s “Little Pony And The Great Big Horse”, which sounds like the beginning of a DBT children’s album, but will have you shedding a tear with its story and acoustic delivery. Another highlight is the pissed-off “Mrs. Claus’ Kimono”, perhaps the only song ever about grudge fucking Santa Claus’ wife. Merry Christmas, big guy.
All told, The Fine Print is another example of how the Drive-By Trucker refuse to be boxed in, yet bring the same razor sharp observational songwriting to each song they produce.
The 411: The Fine Print might as well be the Drive-By Truckers’ latest studio album. The compilation of one-offs from the New West years is packed with great tunes and each song is fully formed – partly because DBT went in and finished off the ones they weren’t 100% happy with. Songs like “TVA”, “George Jones”, “Play It All Night Long” and “Little Pony” are just as vital to the DBT canon as “Outfit”, “Let There Be Rock and “The Living Bubba”. It’s yet another must-have from a band who hasn’t figured out how to take a year off or compromise. It’s that blue collar ethic that keeps the Drive-By Truckers one of the best bands around today.
