Drive-By Truckers Frontman To Release New Solo Album
Posted by Mitch Michaels on 04.20.2009
Patterson Hood's a busy guy this year...
Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood has finally completed his new solo album, Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs), set to be released on June 23rd on his own Ruth St. Records.
"It's very much a labor of love," said Hood. "And it's been a source of great anguish."
The 12-track set consists of songs that were originally home recordings he made upon first moving to Athens, Georgia in 1994 and passed around town on cassettes, long before DBT was formed. Joining the Drive-By Truckers sidetracked the project for ten years. Hood began looking at the material anew in 2004, just before the birth of his first daughter. "I wrote those first songs from a running-away-from-family point of view," Hood said, "And I was going in to record them right before having a baby, so I kind of wrote songs that were a counterpoint to all of them."
Track names include the title track, "Heavy and Hanging" (written the day Kurt Cobain's body was found), "Grandaddy" and "I Understand Now." The album features work from Hood's father David, a legendary Muscle Shoals bassist.
The Drive-By Truckers recently returned from supporting Booker T. Jones in Australia and will continue to play with him throughout the summer for both Booker T sets and DBT sets. Hood will also be touring solo with his band the Screwtopians (which includes DBT drummer Brad Morgan and guitarist John Neff).
Meanwhile, Hood says DBT already has about a dozen songs ready for a new album.
