After announcing it just two days ago, Drive-By Truckers have released a surprise new album, The New OK, out today via ATO RecordsThe New OK arrives just months after the release of the band’s acclaimed new LP, The Unraveling, and marks Drive-By Truckers’ 13th studio album.

Originally conceived as a quarantine EP comprised of material recorded in Memphis during sessions for The Unraveling, the project quickly grew to include provocative new songs written and recorded over what Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood calls “this endless summer of protests, riots, political shenanigans and pandemic horrors”—including a cover of The Ramones classic “The KKK Took My Baby Away”. The themes of the album are readily apparent from the get-got, with cover art depicting a headstone that’s been tagged with rainbow colors and a prominent “BLM.”

drive-by truckers the new ok

Tracks like Hood’s “The New Ok” and “Watching The Orange Clouds”—inspired by the protests which followed George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police—were exchanged between Hood, co-founding singer/songwriter/guitarist Mike Cooley, bassist Mike Patton, keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Jay Gonzalez, and drummer Brad Morgan and subsequently mixed by longtime DBT producer David Barbe. The result, says Hood, is “a full album that hopefully balances out the darkness of our current situation with a hope for better days and nights ahead.”

Patterson Hood Ponders Changing The Name Of Drive-By Truckers In ‘NPR’ Essay

“To call these past few months trying would be a dramatic understatement,” Hood continues. “Our lives are intertwined with our work in ways that give us our best songs and performances. It is a life that has often rewarded us beyond our wildest dreams. Speaking for myself, I don’t have hobbies, I have this thing I do. To be sidelined with a brand new album and have to sit idly while so much that I love and hold dear falls apart before my very eyes has been intense, heartbreaking, anger provoking and very depressing. It has gone to the very heart of our livelihoods and threatened near everything that we have spent our lives trying to build. Here’s to the hope that we can make 2021 a better year than this one has been. In the meantime, here’s to THE NEW OK!”

Listen to The New OK by Drive-By Truckers below:

Drive-By Truckers – The New OK – Full Album

Drive-By Truckers – The New OK – Tracklist

The New Ok
Tough To Let Go
The Unraveling
The Perilous Night
Sarah’s Flame
Sea Island Lonely
The Distance
Watching The Orange Clouds
The KKK Took My Baby Away

View Tracklist

Patterson Hood, DBT co-founder Mike Cooley, and guitarist/keyboardist Jay Gonzalez will all be performing solo shows on NoonChorus.com through the end of the year and beyond at 6p PT/9p ET. The performances will be available for 72 hours after each live broadcast. The scheduled dates are below:

NoonChorus Streams ft. Drive-By Truckers Members

September 30 – Patterson Hood
October 7 – Mike Cooley
October 14 – Patterson Hood
October 21 – Mike Cooley
October 24 – Jay Gonzalez
October 28 – Patterson Hood
November 7 – Jay Gonzalez
November 11 – Mike Cooley
November 18 – Patterson Hood