DBT’s Hood announces follow-up record plans, possible
relocation to Caribbean
By Kevin Broughton
Portland, Ore. –
Patterson Hood is jittery, and not just from the third vegan latte at Habas Frescas, a hip coffee shop nestled
on a busy intersection here in the City of Roses. He’s flustered, too. “I mean,
you pour your soul into making music that really means something, just to see it all flushed away on a Tuesday in
November,” laments Hood, longtime front man of the Drive By Truckers. “And just
a couple weeks later, we lose a universally beloved and adored human rights
icon? Makes you wonder what it all means, or if any of this means anything at
all.”
The fifty-something musician can be forgiven for waxing
philosophical. DBT’s eleventh studio album, American
Band, was hastily written and released just two months before the most
contentious U.S. election in memory – and all, it would seem, for naught. Hood
and 30-year collaborator Mike Cooley set out to make an exclusively, overtly
political record, and proceeded brashly to air their election-year grievances. He
is genuinely stunned at the notion his band’s ideology failed to carry the day.
“We hit all the bases, and hit them hard, man,” Hood says,
spittle collecting on his lower lip as he grows progressively agitated. “Gun
ownership, sovereign borders, Mexicans, blacks, gays and women. Police
brutality, for [expletive]’s sake! How could people listen to this album and
still vote [expletive] Trump into the White House?”
A record label official familiar with internal market-charting
metrics described sales as “less than brisk, to put it kindly.”
But the Truckers have never been driven or defined by record
sales, and pride themselves on expanding their fervent grassroots audience one
show at a time. “And we’re gonna keep branching out, too. You have to keep
plowing new ground to stay organic, musically,” Hood says. “Geographically,
politically, whatever. And especially right now…” Here the singer trails off
momentarily, a slight quiver in his jaw muscles. “What’s happened in the
universe when America elects a tyrant capitalist and a true progressive leader
dies, in a matter of weeks?
“Everybody in Cuba
can read, man. Think about that,” Hood continues. “And who’s the only
democratically elected leader in the Western Hemisphere who guaranteed free
health care? Fidel [expletive] Castro, that’s who!” The native (yet reluctant)
Alabamian gathers himself and continues. “They’ve achieved close to 100% gun
control down there, with zero white cops riding around in Cuba shooting young
black kids for sport.”
Which is why the singer – who relocated here from Athens,
Ga. just one year ago – is moving his musical base of operations yet again.
“The Wednesday after the election, I was already writing songs for a follow-up
record, lots of Woody Guthrie-type, anti-capitalist stuff. Hang on,” Hood says,
scanning a text message on his iPhone 7. “When Commandante passed, I knew we had to get in the studio like, now,
and do it in [expletive] Havana.”
Not only did he book a week in the prestigious and state-run
Muerte a America recording studios;
Hood, his wife and two young children will also take up residence in the
romantic Caribbean capital. “She found us a 1 ½ bedroom flat a quarter mile
walk from the bread store,” he says. “Eight bucks a week! And I’ve shipped a
couple pallets of bottled water, and we’re all taking Cipro, so we’re set. Hang
on. Gotta take this.”
He takes a moment to clarify a quote with a music critic
from The Daily Kos. “Yeah, I said
‘Latin feel.’ That’s all I can say. No more hints. Can’t get into content right
now, bro.” He winks and ends the call.
Hood is at first mum about how much of his plan he’s told
his band mates. When pressed, he ‘fesses up. “Look, I haven’t told Cooley yet,
okay? Marlboro Reds are $80 a pack there,” Hood says. “That’s almost double
what they are here in Portland. It’s the cost of living in a free country, I
guess.”
**fake news**
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