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Drive-By Truckers: Go-Go Boots

ATO

There’s a story that weaves through Drive-By Truckers’ Go-Go Boots about a preacher and his mistress that begins with the album’s title track and ends with “The Fireplace Poker,” which happens to be the instrument the preacher uses to bludgeon his wife. No one is better at crafting creepy Southern gothics like this than Truckers bandleader Patterson Hood. But what makes the band’s eleventh studio album such an overwhelming achievement is that upbeat songs like Muscle Shoals R&B legend Eddie Hinton’s “Everybody Needs Love” compliment these stories of religion and murder. Bassist Shonna Tucker also delivers perhaps her finest moment yet on a haunting cover of Hinton’s “Where’s Eddie.” It’s no accident that two Hinton covers appear on the same album. The band’s time spent backing Booker T. and Bettye LaVette has coalesced into a mature, country-soul vibe that the Truckers have only hinted at in the past. Singer/guitarist Mike Cooley —known for his economical country songs—has never turned a better phrase than “I’m not good with numbers, I just count on knowing when I’m high enough” (“Cartoon Gold”). The LP concludes with “Mercy Buckets,” a triumphant epic that would sit perfectly next to the Stones’ “Shine a Light,” sealing the deal on the Truckers’ best album since The Dirty South —if not ever.