Drive-By Truckers – Southern Rock Opera (2001)
[Album 739/1001]
I don’t always read about an album before listening.
But when I do, I’m generally glad that I did.
Perhaps never more so than when I read a bit about Southern Rock Opera before exploring it this month.
Otherwise, I would have been somewhat flummoxed as to why seemingly every song was about Lynyrd Skynyrd!
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As an accounting teacher, it was also interesting to read about how the band financed this recording.
Long before the days of Kickstarter or GoFundMe, Drive By Truckers (DBT) had a creative solution to fundraising.
The band offered Promissory Notes to investors: if you loaned the band $, they’d pay you back with 15% interest.
So thank you DBT for a future Notes Payable lesson plan!
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But even more exciting than the accounting involved in the making of the record?
The music itself.
One of the singers (the vocalist on the terrific track two, Ronnie and Neil) reminds me of Cracker’s David Lowery & another vocalist has some Jon Bon Jovi similarities, both very favourable reference points in my books.
The Three Great Alabama Icons is one of the better storytelling tracks I’ve heard and I find there’s a different album track that I appreciate more with each re-listen.
Overall, I find that my most reliable metric for assessing an album is in seeing how quickly I’m motivated to listen to an album again; with Southern Rock Opera, I’ve had this playing on repeat for the past week.
I like the accounting, I admire the double LP / concept-album ambition, and most importantly, I’ve just really been enjoying it!
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Verbalize the Positive
An early contender for this year’s top new-to-me album from the 1001 list!
I tend to always zero is on the Jason Isbell tracks (he joined the band for a few albums after this one) – I need to spend more time with Cooley and Hood’s stuff.
Good to hear there’s more to enjoy after this one – I’ll be interested to hear Isbell’s work!
When you can mix good music with accounting, I don’t know if there is anything better!! As a CPA, it warms my heart to know the debits and credits balance!!
Agreed!
I tell my students, you’ll never experience a thrill quite like balancing – and when they finally get their balance sheets to do so, they see why!
Ow man! I’m getting excited now. 🛑😂
These guys were smart in financing that album on their own. A win win for the buyer. Pay a little cash and get some good rock out of it.
I think you’d enjoy a lot of these tracks too – Rock sounding like Rawk!
I need to give these guys some more time. I saw them live a few years ago and really enjoyed them and am really digging their latest album.
That’s encouraging to hear they’re still going strong – when my first experience with a band is such an ambitious epic, I’m somewhat hesitant to explore further.
Like with the magnetic fields, 69 love songs was terrific, but I haven’t explored further yet.
perhaps the time to hesitate is through!
I like the idea of this one, cheers Geoff. I’ll give this a go.
Enjoy!
I don’t much about these guys. I’ll give it a spin.
I’d say check out the song ‘Ronnie and Neil’ – if it appeals, the rest may as well!