Drive-By Truckers passed another roadside marker on Tuesday with the release of “The Driver”. The single arrives as the third from the Southern rockers’ upcoming album, Welcome 2 Club XIII, out via ATO Records on June 3rd.
The title for the new album, which follows DBT’s 2020 releases The Unraveling and The New OK, comes from the name of the Muscle Shoals, AL bar where guitarists Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley got their start.
“There were no cool bars in town and Club XIII was the best we had,” Hood said in a statement. “But it wasn’t all that good, and our band [Adam’s House Cat] wasn’t particularly liked there. From time to time the owner would throw us a Wednesday night or let us open for a hair-metal band we were a terrible fit for, and everyone would hang out outside until we were done playing. It wasn’t very funny at the time, but it’s funny to us now.”
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On “The Driver”, Hood takes listeners on one of the many late-night rides he frequented back in the Club XIII days. A young man contemplating his future sees life pass by in the windshield, as Hood’s lyrics do an eery crawl through terrestrial radio and eventually reveal themselves as an epic poem. Hood ultimately picks up momentum, shifting the track into gear with his trademark howl.
“Around the same era of Club XIII, I spent a lot of time driving around late at night when I couldn’t sleep, listening to music loud and often having a beer or two,” Hood said. “Sometimes during those drives I’d have these epiphanies about what to do with my life – like listening to Tim by The Replacements not long after it came out and deciding to drop out of school to try and make this whole band thing work.”
Watch the lyric video for the new Drive-By Truckers single, “The Driver”, and click here to pre-order Welcome 2 Club XIII. The band is gearing up for a run of European tour dates set to run through June. For tickets and a full list of tour dates visit DBT’s website.
Drive-By Truckers – “The Driver” (Official Lyric Video)