Buy Shamrock Music: Live From Decatur

Buy The CD on Amazon.com | or download it on

I rooted for Shamrock on VH1s White Rapper Show, and when he won I was pumped.

Now we get ready for Shamrock's debut. We put "Entourage" into rotation on the station, and every time I hear it, my whole body wants to move with the hypnotic beat and this Geogia artists flow that signifies why he put the other "white rappers" in their place: Behind Shamrock.

Shamrock: The Info

From His Myspace Page:

Every now and then a young and hungry rhyme-spitter emerges from the faceless, nameless sea of rappers to offer hope in the form of a fresh, new flow. The hip-hop breeding ground that is Zone 6 of Atlanta has delivered yet another talent. Only this time, it is a little different.

Already dubbed the "Eminem of the South" by his local following, 23 year-old $hamrock, born Timothy Rasmussen, brings a different perspective to say the least. "I rep for that one white dude in the trap, in the hood, playing hoops, in the club, who just don't know anything else. I get down with the best of em."

Raised in Decatur, GA and Conyers, GA on the eastside of Atlanta, "$ham" learned early on that rap was a powerful force. "Everyone always doubted me when they first saw me like 'oh he a lame' and 'why he here' and shit like that. When people heard me rap, it was like my acceptance."

In between earning Varsity letters and tearing down lunch cafeteria sessions in high school, $ham managed to earn numerous scholarships to attend college. Taking his act to the University of Georgia in Athens, GA, it was there that $ham made his rap visions a reality. After winning the first talent show he ever entered, $ham earned a gig opening for The Roots and Sleepy Brown. As he tells it, that opportunity was the final push he needed.

"That was it for me. I had the whole school telling me I'm tight and that I'm gone make it and blow up and be rich. I promised Moms that I would get my degree and then I would chase my dream to get signed. She and my Pops gave me their blessing and that was that."

Making good on his promise, $hamrock earned his Journalism degree in May 2005.

n 2006, after working with local underground producers Luney Tunez & Ribah, $hamrock's break finally came. $hamrock was picked to be on a new VH1 show that would air at the end of the year called "VH1's EGOTRIP - The White Rapper Show". After a grueling process, which included him garnering millions of fans and beating out a dozen other finalists, $hamrock won.

Now rocking shows from coast-to-coast, being known worldwide (yes, the show is now on in the UK & other countries as well), and being $100,000 dollars richer, $hamrock is ready to bring his music to the masses. But stopping traffic in Manhattan, constantly being stopped by his supporters in the streets all over the country, and being courted by major record labels for the opportunity to release his debut album “Worst 2 First” has not changed $hamrock one bit.

"I basically think that I will get out what I put in. The harder I work and the more opportunities I go after, its more likely I will get my shine. It's all about that hustle and flow."

Popularity: 9% [?]

Have You Been Looking for Zac Brown Foundation?

We've been looking forward to the re release of Foundation by Zac Brown band, and its finally here  If  you Buy Zac Brown Foundation Right Now, Music Today is offering a special pre order deal.

Here are the details.

You can Now Order Zac Brown Foundation, and get the download instantly!

Click Here To Pre Order Zac Brown Foundation
Here's what else you could get when you Pre-Order Foundation

The Foundation Pre-order CD $11.99 Purchase the pre-order CD (featuring two interchangeable covers)and also receive: • Digital download of the The Foundation album immediately upon purchase • Instant download of two new, exclusive tracks, "Let It Go" and "Who Knows," from ZBB's House of Blues Chicago performance

Hold on it gets better! For the fan who wants it all, we have just the thing to satisfy even the most diehard ZBB fan. Not only will you get an autographed copy of The Foundation in your mailbox on Sept 2nd and the complete digital download of the new album upon purchase, but you'll also receive a ZBB t-shirt available exclusively through this pre-order AND an instant download of 10 tracks from ZBB's performance from the House of Blues in Chicago.

Autographed The Foundation CD and ZBB Logo T-shirt Bundle $26.99 • Digital download of The Foundation album IN FULL & immediately upon purchase • Instant download of 10 live tracks from ZBB's performance at the House of Blues Chicago • ZBB t-shirt, created exclusively for this pre-order

PLEASE NOTE: There is a limited number of autographed copies.

Here's the best part – you could be entered to win a fly away trip including: concert tickets, lodging, and airfare from anywhere in the continental US for two to Zac Brown Band's 2008 New Year's Eve performance. In order to be entered in the contests, you MUST add the entry form to your cart. Winners will be chosen at random. Additional runner-up prizes include: ZBB concert tickets and a $50 gift certificate to ZBB's online store. Click here for complete details.

Click here to pre-order The Foundation today – you could be flying away to see ZBB ring in 2009 before you can say "Chicken Fried."

Popularity: 15% [?]

Its finally here

Click Here to Buy Outtakes from The Georgia Theatre Here

Everybody wants to know: How Can I get Corey Smith "Fuck The Po Po" (The Po Po Song)?

Will He ever record "Backroads"? How Bout "Can't Judge a Book By Its Cover"

Corey Smith Will Be releasing a Live 6 song Download Only Album entitled Outtakes from the Georgia Theatre, and we're excited as Heck about it!

It will include the following Songs:

1. "Maybe Next Year"
2. "Party"
3. "Backroads" (the Roadhead Song)
4. "Fuck The Po Po " - (The Po-Po Song)
5. "Cant Judge A Book By Its Cover"
6. "Drinkin Again"

If you've never seen Corey Smith Live, you may not have heard many of the songs on this 6 CD set. One listen and you'll understand why this Jefferson Georgia Native is a virtual Pied Piper of Southern Culture.

You'll be able to buy Corey Smith - Outtakes From The Georgia Theatre here, or at the Official Corey Smith Website on July 8th

Corey Smith Official Website

Corey Smith On Myspace

The Georgia Theatre - A Classic City Icon

If you've ever spent any time in Athens Georgia, you've spent lots of time at The Georgia Theatre. I spent most of the nineties in the Georgia Theatre Balcony (I was the guy with the funny hat). Its a right of passage for young Southern singers and bands to headline the Georgia Theatre.

RandomThings I've Seen At The Georgia Theatre:

• U.G.A. Football - Its like being at the game, but you don't have to hide your beer
• Kinchafoonie, Josh Joplin, Rollin' In The Hay, Collective Soul, David Allan Coe, Govt Mule, Jump Little Children, Ben Folds Five, the list could go on and on....
• "Wizard Of Oz set to The Wall , Pink Floyd Lazer Light Show, Dazed And Confused
• In the 90s they set up a dance club between 2 and 4. No Alcohol, and it turned into a bunch of high-school kids out past curfew...
• Random fights, break-ups, hook-ups, naked women, naked men (eww!)

Popularity: 25% [?]

Update!! - Due to overwhelming response, the show has been moved to Ridge Ferry Park at 300 W. 3rd St., Rome, GA.

http://www.licksnsticks.com/

If you are looking for a good place to listen to some great southern rock this summer, then you need to get to White Georgia for Licks N Sticks.

The concert will also benefit Save A Pet

Here's some of the line-up for this great show:

• Marshall Tucker Band
• Atlanta Rythm Section
• Georgia Satellites
• Jimmie Van Zant

Also, a Georgia Jukebox Fave, and local band The Thrillhammers will be playing. Its worth the trip to see them, and the Jukebox will be there to party with the crowd!

Popularity: 13% [?]

Visit Jayne Olderman's Website

• "Let Me Be There For You" on Patti's GRAMMY nominated GOLD CD release "FLAME" (MCA)
• "You Don't Deserve Me" for CBS movie of the week, the MAFIA DOCTOR (aired 3/16/03)
• "CMT's Greatest Road Trips; licensed her song "The End of the Road"

Popularity: 38% [?]

Hot Off The shoot, here are some exclusive photos from Colt Ford's video shoot for his song "No Trash in My Trailer" in Nashville TN this week.

Popularity: 50% [?]

The Georgia Music scene is a buzz about the latest fusion of music from Colt Ford. He's been touring with another Jukebox favorite Brantley Gilbert.

They just shot a video, and we'll be seeing it everywhere before long.

Well we've put a healthy dose into rotation at The South's Best Music, and below is a track to tide you over until the next one airs.

Here's a bio and a few pictures.

Colt Ford Bio

from his official website

Take a hefty portion of Southern charm, add a dash of country livin’, a pinch of urban style, wash it all down with a sweet, fresh sound, and you have Colt Ford. A man with such a blend of unique talents and tastes can only be the natural recipe for this new sound and musical format.

Colt Ford embodies the seemingly unusual pairing of the Southern country and hip-hop musical influences that he heard growing up in small-town America just outside Athens, Georgia, not far from the new Southern hub for urban music in Atlanta. His newly styled country music is truly a blend of many American musical styles, including country, rock, hip-hop, and rhythm & blues. With this musical mixture, Colt blazes forward with a new, creative sound for the all-American everyman. Although the stories may differ for rural and urban listeners, Colt delivers a common message and emotion with an uncommon sound.

A man of extraordinary talents and background, Colt still humbly considers himself an “average Joe.” A songwriter, golfer, musician, and family man, he continues to enjoy hunting, fishing, and spending time with his wife and two children. Although he has traveled around the globe as a professional golfer, he still prefers to live in his small Southern hometown. In the face of all of his musical and other accomplishments, he holds the moment that he got his wife to say “yes” as one of his greatest honors. He is a fun-loving guy who likes to make people smile and show them a good time, whether with a light-hearted joke or a rocking new song.

Colt Ford grew up listening to country music, and his first concert was Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers together in Georgia. He eventually gravitated towards R&B and hip-hop and made his musical debut in high school writing a rap for a friend. Colt soon found that writing came easy to him and began working with acclaimed producer Jermaine Dupri and other developing hip-hop artists.

His connections writing in the hip-hop world and his other love of country music produce unprecedented collaborations on his latest projects. Colt’s diverse co-writing credentials include country music songwriter and recording artist Jamey Johnson, songwriter/guitarist Jeremy Popoff of the alt rock band Lit, and hip-hop writer Attitude. Other musical contributions include country artist John Michael Montgomery and country music duo Montgomery Gentry, hip hop artists Bone Crusher and Sunny Ledfurd, and No Doubt’s Adrian Young.

Colt Ford debuted his new country music format in nothing less than grand style. With encouragement from his wife, a pro bull riding fan, Colt wrote “Buck ‘Em” for the Professional Bull Riders, Inc. The organization quickly adopted the song as the new PBR anthem and Colt made his musical and video debut on national television at the VERSUS Invitational Pro Bull Riding Competition in Madison Square Garden in January 2007. The unique fusion of musical styles makes “Buck ‘Em” as popular among the traditional legends as it is among the younger riders. Further honoring the sport, the video features several top bull riders and is a guaranteed favorite among the fans.

Colt’s current album appeals to the all-American everyman just like himself. To get to know Colt Ford, just listen to “RIDE THROUGH THE COUNTRY,” as he invites you to Any Country Town, USA, where you can find him with all his friends. Soon you’ll learn why he calls himself “MR. GOODTIME” in this fun, feel-good song. If it’s just “one of those days,” Colt offers up “GOOD GOD O MIGHTY” to help you get through with a smile. In the great American tradition, “TAILGATE” directs you to back up the truck, fire up the grill, and have a good time. If you are looking for a rocking barroom song, check out “COLD BEER” and then two-step all your past lovers to the door with “TRASH IN MY TRAILER.” Remarking on how stress, our heritage, and our dreams can pull us in many directions, Colt takes time to reflect in “TWISTED.” Celebrating all the influences on his new country style, he brings back the party in “SADDLE UP.” As Colt works on his new album, slated for release in 2008, he is also the subject of a new reality TV show, “Who Is Colt Ford?” The show gives a glimpse into the life of this talented yet personable man as he strives for nothing less than success in his musical career.

Colt Ford Photos

Popularity: 100% [?]

Welcome to the "new and improved" Georgia Jukebox. We're updating the website over the next few days, so make sure to come back and check out the finished product.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Buy Honeydew

Buy The CD on Amazon | or download it on

The first time I heard Shawn Mullins (Soul’s Core) his music hit home the way only a local songwriter from your part of the world can do. The language was familiar, the stories were the kind of stories I’d grown up hearing, and still seem uniquely North-east Georgia.

Fast forward to 2008, and Mullins newest offering, Honey Dew. You’d expect Shawn Mullins music and song-writing to have matured over the years, and that it has. But there’s still that sense of reality that’s missing in many mainstream artists’ albums these days.

“All In My Head” starts Honey Dew Off with a bang. This is a radio-friendly introspective song is a great way to start out the Atlanta Georgia (originally from Dawsonville) artists newest album.

“The Ballad of Kathryn Johnston” tells the story of inner-city troubles and a police shoot-out with the elderly Johnston, which left Johnston dead and the police to answer many questions.

“Homeless Joe” is a mix of Skynyrd’s “Curtis Low” and Arrested Devlopment’s “Mr. Wendell” and blends blues, folk, and rock into a unique mixture of Americana

“Cabbagetown” is perhaps the best song on Honey Dew, and represents the best of the “Old” Shawn Mullins and the best of what’s yet to come from this proud Georgia artist.

Its obvious that Shawn Mullins move to Atlanta has affected him as an artist in many ways. I’d dare to say Honey Dew could be an unofficial soundtrack to Atlanta that keeps you coming back to discover new parts of the music, like I discover new parts of Atlanta each time I bring myself to drive inside I-285. He tells his stories with the compassion you expect from someone living in rural America. One listen to Hone Dew will showMullins has not lost his soul.

You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.

---

Shawn Mullins On Honeydew

SHAWN MULLINS ON THE SONGS OF HONEYDEW:

“All in My Head”: The song’s theme of self-examination belies the fact that it was written by Mullins and Hansen as a prospective theme song for the sitcom Scrubs. The original 2002 recording was lighter and more uptempo than this powerful new version, in which Mullins delivers an arching falsetto vocal in the chorus. “When we FIRST started the recording, I was having a block, and Gerry said, ‘Shawn, I’m tellin’ you, that shit’s all in your head, just like that song we wrote.’ And I said, ‘Man, we oughta dig that up.’ The next thing I knew, we were all sitting around working it up in a whole different groove.”

“Home”: “The first verse is about my dear friend Melissa Hadley, a musician in Athens and the funniest woman I ever knew, who died at 38 of ovarian cancer. The second verse came to me as I was looking at old pictures of Cabbagetown, a section of Atlanta that was once inhabited by Irish immigrant mill workers. In one photo, there’s a boy sitting in front of a dimestore, looking as emaciated as a POW. I got to thinkin’ that it wasn’t that long ago, right here in my hometown.”

“The Ballad of Kathryn Johnston”: Literally ripped from the headlines, the song is about an aged woman living in a crime-infested Atlanta neighborhood who got a gun to protect herself. When intruders broke down her door one night, the woman started firing, not realizing her assailants were police officers, who, it turned out, had targeted the wrong house in search of drug dealers. “Reading Dylan’s Chronicles inspired me to look for news stories, and this one really grabbed me. So little was said about it because that’s how things are in rough neighborhoods, which is what I meant by the line, ‘everything stays the same.’ But it all changed for me, because I connected with her. Sometimes I don’t feel safe, especially after we got cleaned out last year. But we don’t have a gun in the house. Even though I’ve got a little army in me [after college, Mullins was commissioned in the U.S. Army Reserve], I don’t wanna live that way.”

“Homeless Joe”: “There really is a Homeless Joe here in Atlanta, along with Shorty, Blind Bob, Wolf and other strumming, homeless troubadours. They’re living through their art, even though their lives are tough, without enough to eat or a place to sleep, and they’re viewed as winos on the street. The song is a celebration of those people who are following their bliss, even in the most difficult of circumstances. I’ve always connected with them; I see them as modern-day examples of the wanderer.”

“Leaving All Your Troubles Behind”: “This is the story of a girl who lives in a town in the North Georgia Mountains where there were once textile mills, but now the biggest industry is trailer meth, cooked up by the grandkids of moonshiners. There are a lot of people in small towns in the South that try to escape, and most of them wind up coming back. But not this girl; she’s seen enough to know that’s not where she belongs.”

“Fraction of a Man”: “A modern-day traveling salesman finds himself in Biloxi, and suddenly it hits him — ‘What am I doing with my life?’ That’s a really common thing for a lot of middle-aged American men, who want to follow their bliss and really go for it, but somehow they never do. This one leaves you with a reality check, with the

alcoholism, the loneliness, and the nomadic existence. It’d make a bummer of a movie.”

“See That Train”: “I love trains. My grandfather, father and brother-in-law all worked for the railroad, and I miss all the stories I used to hear. The song is about a hobo whose girl has left him asleep under a water tower and taken the train to Birmingham. I feel so unhip, because all the stuff I’m interested in is old. But there’s something about that America of yesterday that I long for; sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong time.”

“For America”: “I wanted to have something on the record that would express what I wanted to say not as a protest song but more like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger or early Dylan might have written. This song talks about the modern America and that feeling of what’s going on? Where are we headed? Where are our leaders? There’s a longing in the song for something that can’t be felt anymore.”

“Cabbagetown”: “It was a tough neighborhood until the late ’90s; now it’s one of the largest complexes of loft housing anywhere, surrounded by these rows of tiny shotgun houses where the mill workers used to live — now they sell for $400 grand. But this song is set in the late ’80s, when Cabbagetown was overrun by skinheads and junkies. It’s about a guy my age who wakes up one morning, looks around and decides he’s gotta get back to the mountains, where his grandfather came from. My family was full of sharecroppers and cotton mill workers — like my grandmother, who’s 93.”

“Nameless Faces”: “That one has to do with me leaving my family when I first hit the road. I really needed to get out of this little town where my first wife and I were living and play music and be with other people who were creating. I didn’t come home for a long time, and I lost contact with everyone, so it’s about my family trying to call me home.”

“Song of the Self (Chapter 2)”: “I wrote a song called ‘Song of the Self’ in ’95, right after I started going to therapy. I had a great therapist who showed me how to move on from my childhood demons, use them to my advantage and try to forgive. I hadn’t written another song like that since then, until this one. It just came to me early on in the process of writing this record. I sang these words into that little recorder, and it was exactly what I wanted to say. I’m talking to myself, but I’m also hoping that whoever listens can get something out of it. Because with all that’s going on, I feel like a little hope is a good thing.”

“Now That You’re Gone”: “That song is somewhat coming from me talking to my mom, but it’s also about my dad, who’s just had an awful time since she died. He’s remembering those times, especially in the second verse. The first is me imagining them dating, and remembering the stories they would tell about when they were childhood sweethearts in Lakewood Heights.”

(more...)

Popularity: 21% [?]

By Joe Samuel Starnes

When Joe Samuel Starnes, novelist, and friend of The Georgia Jukebox offered to write a review of The Drive-By Truckers Philadelphia show for the jukebox, we were honored he'd use our website to publish thoughts on one of his (and our) favorite bands.

I grew up near Cedartown, Georgia, in a white clapboard farmhouse that had been in my mother’s family for generations, sitting on a low hill at the end of a red dirt driveway about half a mile from the paved road, not too far from the Alabama state line. We were so far out in the country that if anyone drove up our road you knew that they were: a) coming to see you; b) lost; c) hunting for somewhere out of the way to drink and smoke something illegal and/or consummate an illicit relationship that would have brought worlds of hurt down on their heads if they had taken it into their bedrooms at home.

Today I live in a Philadelphia row house where the sidewalk passes right by my living room window and in the afternoon Catholic school kids pass by cussing at each other like demented sailors and expectorating loudly in the street. Sometimes late at night from our third floor bedroom with the windows closed tight and the curtains drawn we can hear drunks caterwauling, either singing if they are happy or cursing up a hell storm if they are not. There aren’t enough letters in the alphabet to list the possible intentions of people walking past my door.

It has been a quarter of a century since I called that house out in the country home. For the past eight years I’ve been in the Northeast, but that vast space of pine trees and hardwoods and fields where in the summertime the whippoorwills and bobwhites called all night still resonates deep inside me. Cedartown was a place where I knew just about everybody and everybody knew me and my parents, and if they were old enough, they knew my mother’s parents before (often that familiarity was a good thing; other times, when people were up in your business, not so much). I think about my home there all the time, the good and the bad. And I’ve never heard a band that takes me back to that place and captures that world, the vivid stories of small town southern lives, as the Drive-By Truckers do in their songs. These two divergent worlds of mine merged happily Thursday night, March 27, when DBT played Philadelphia, packing the spacious Fillmore at the TLA (formerly the Theatre of the Living Arts) on South Street and kicking out a great show of songs both old and new.

I could write a long string of fat sentences about how damn good the band sounded, how tight the guitars, smooth the keyboards and strong the drums, as well as the juxtaposition of Patterson’s high, slightly raspy voice and Mike Cooley’s deep tone, a voice that somehow manages to mix humor, lonesomeness and a little bit of threat into one sound. Shonna Tucker’s sweet voice often comes in and rounds it all out. They are a fantastic rock band with streaks of the best elements of country music; imagine if the Rolling Stones were from North Alabama and had a touch of Johnny Cash. But instead I want to focus on the stories in the songs, the great attention to detail and rhyme that bring these stories to life as much as any poem, fiction or movie. A lot of bands write songs that have lyrics that sound pretty and paint you an image or two—a DBT song, however, takes you somewhere, and you enjoy the ride. They know how to write a line, and they know how to tell a story as well as anyone recording today.

They opened the show Thursday with “Goode’s Field Road,” Hood’s song from the near the end of their new record, “Brighter than Creation’s Dark.” It’s a relentless rhythm in the voice of a man in serious trouble about to meet his maker in a murky deal that has gone bad, or more likely he’s planning to end his life to avoid going to prison, but the listener is never told exactly “what went down on Goode’s Field Road.”

Keeping in sequence from the album, they played “A Ghost to Most,” a Cooley specialty with one of his many unforgettable lines: “But skeletons ain’t got nowhere to put their money/nobody makes britches that size/and besides you’re a ghost to most before they notice/that you ever had a hair or a hide.” Literary critics could write long articles about this one and never quite decipher the ultimate meaning, concluding, if they are honest, that it’s cryptically fascinating, not to mention a little dark but also funny as hell. According to Hood’s liner notes on their web site, he overheard a friend ask Cooley what the song meant and he replied, “It's really hard for me to find a suit that fits me right." Ultimately, asking the band what some of their songs mean is like asking Cormac McCarthy to explain what happens to The Kid at the end of “Blood Meridian.”You got to come to your own conclusion.

Patterson followed with a new song that is getting a lot of airplay in Philly on WXPN-FM, the alternative station at the University of Pennsylvania where David Dye’s show World Café is hosted. “Righteous Path” is about a family man trying to stay on the straight and narrow in spite of all the temptations life presents. It’s a grown up rock’n’roll song. During this tune, of course, was when an overly-endowed young woman riding on the shoulders of an apparently very strong man chose to pull up her shirt and reveal her abundance to the band. If they noticed her, they didn’t act like they did. And she was hard to miss, bless her heart.

The new album which they are touring in support of is the first since the departure last year of Jason Isbell, the talented young songwriter, singer and guitarist who laid claim to a number of songs, including the brilliant “Outfit” and “Never Going to Change,” one song poignant and the other downright defiant. Isbell, who recorded with the band from the albums “Decoration Day” in 2003 through “A Blessing and a Curse” in 2006, was certainly no slouch. But most bands don’t have one songwriter on par with Hood, Cooley and Isbell, and I doubt any band has room for three for the long-term. It sounds unkind to Isbell to say I didn’t miss him because I greatly admire his work, but I didn’t miss him Thursday night. Hood and Cooley who have been playing together since the eighties have more than enough material to crank out long shows like they did, digging all the way back into the albums of the late nineties, “Pizza Deliverance” and, still my personal favorite, “Gangstabilly.”

While Isbell is gone, David Barbe continues to work with DBT, producing, engineering and mixing “Brighter than Creation’s Dark,” as well as playing on a few tracks. Barbe was at one time bass player for Bob Mould’s band Sugar, but for me he will always be the front man for Mercyland, my all-time favorite Athens, Georgia group. Mercyland is easily the most underappreciated rock trio of the last century.

DBT on Thursday played a long, strong opening set of about two hours—you always get more than your money’s worth—and returned after a quick break for their encore, kicking it off with what may be my favorite song, Cooley’s “Marry Me.” This song definitely has what I think is their best opening line: “Well, my daddy didn’t pull out, but he never apologized.” I once saw Maya Angelou on TV say that George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today” has more story than most writers can get into a 300-page novel, and the same sentiment goes for many DBT songs, especially this one. “Marry Me” manages to tell one man’s entire life from conception to his own pending unplanned fatherhood and conveys his perspective on the world in only five stanzas, including this declaration on his desire to stay in his hometown: “This old town’s all right with me, there’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

The encore concluded with Hood’s contrary “Buttholeville,” a song that shows while some folks love their humble hometowns and would never leave, others are dying to get away, are flat out “tired of living in Buttholeville.” Unlike the narrator in Cooley’s “Marry Me,” the dude in this song is one day going to put the town in his rearview mirror and is “never going back to Buttholeville.”

Thursday night’s show was the first time I’ve seen The Drive-By Truckers in my four years of following the band that they didn’t finish with Jim Carroll’s dark rocker “People Who Died,” but instead ended with a medley that wove a souped-up version of Bruce Springsteen’s haunting “State Trooper” embedded in the middle of “Buttholeville.” I thought DBT’s ending each show with Carroll’s song might be a tradition that would last like Willie Nelson’s thirty-year run of starting every concert with “Whiskey River,” but I guess not. It doesn’t matter. Like Springsteen whose repertoire is so intertwined with his home turf in New Jersey that for some it defines the state, DBT has carved out a marvelous body of work over the past ten years that paints a vast canvas of the hardships and joys of life in the modern, rural South. Covering Springsteen, who in my mind Hood and Cooley are up on par with at the highest level of songwriting, seems just right by me.

Buy Sam's 1st Novel "Calling" on Amazon, visit his website, and continue to support those who make Southern culture the envy of the rest of the world.

Popularity: 18% [?]