Patterson Hood (of Drive-By Truckers)
12-4-2024
Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood’s fourth solo album and first in over 12 years, "Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams" sees the veteran singer, guitarist, and songwriter exploring his youth and young manhood in a collection unlike anything in his ever-evolving catalogue. A baroque American song cycle spanning the time between early childhood and leaving his rural hometown in search of his musical dreams, the album gathers songs that have amassed over the remarkably prolific songwriter’s career, many of which provided him with distraction and creative sustenance during lockdown, others which have resided among his notebooks for years. Songs like “The Van Pelt Parties” (featuring members of “my favorite new band,” Wednesday) and “At Safe Distance” are fueled by finely drawn character studies and Hood’s well-honed gift for clear-eyed self-examination, looking at crucial memories and life experiences to process the moments that saw him coalesce into his adult self.
Auxiliary backing was provided by a stellar cast of friends and musicians including fellow Alabama native Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee), Brad and Phil Cook (Megafaun), Kevin Morby, Wednesday, Steve Berlin (Los Lobos, The Blasters), Brad Morgan and Jay Gonzalez (Drive-By Truckers), David Barbe (Sugar, Mercyland), Nate Query (The Decemberists), Steve Drizos (Jerry Joseph and The Jackmormons), Daniel Hunt (Neko Case, M Ward), and Stuart Bogie (The Hold Steady, Goose). “I was really moved by some of the people that were willing to apply their talents to it,” says Hood. “There are people that play on this that I’ve been a huge fan of for a long time, and for them to be a part of a record I made is a big honor to me. I made a wish list of people that I would love to be on this record, and I was kind of blown away that with the vast majority of them, it worked out.”
Drive-By Truckers have released 14 studio albums and played well over 2,500 shows in the past twenty-eight years. They also released a 35-song, career-spanning box set in 2015 that was recorded live at The Fillmore in San Francisco. "Southern Rock Opera," Drive-By Truckers' best-known work, is a concept album that examines growing up in the post-civil rights South and something called "The Duality of the Southern Thing." Hood penned an article for The Bitter Southerner in 2013 titled "The New(er) South," and in it he revisits many of those same themes found on the record by giving a glimpse into his first 28 years of life in Alabama. "I grew up as a living part of the legacy of Muscle Shoals music," Hood says. His father, David Hood, co-founded Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and was a bassist in the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section, more casually known as "The Swampers."
Hood and his family relocated to beautiful Portland, Oregon in the summer of 2015, where they have been renovating a 100-year-old house. In addition to touring, recording and writing, Hood has also recently done some acting with small roles in a couple of films ("The Dark Divide" with David Cross and an indie film called "Ragged Heart"). He has also completed filming a small role in the upcoming indie film called “Sweetwater Road,” set to be released in 2025.
Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood’s fourth solo album and first in over 12 years, "Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams" sees the veteran singer, guitarist, and songwriter exploring his youth and young manhood in a collection unlike anything in his ever-evolving catalogue. A baroque American song cycle spanning the time between early childhood and leaving his rural hometown in search of his musical dreams, the album gathers songs that have amassed over the remarkably prolific songwriter’s career, many of which provided him with distraction and creative sustenance during lockdown, others which have resided among his notebooks for years. Songs like “The Van Pelt Parties” (featuring members of “my favorite new band,” Wednesday) and “At Safe Distance” are fueled by finely drawn character studies and Hood’s well-honed gift for clear-eyed self-examination, looking at crucial memories and life experiences to process the moments that saw him coalesce into his adult self.
Auxiliary backing was provided by a stellar cast of friends and musicians including fellow Alabama native Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee), Brad and Phil Cook (Megafaun), Kevin Morby, Wednesday, Steve Berlin (Los Lobos, The Blasters), Brad Morgan and Jay Gonzalez (Drive-By Truckers), David Barbe (Sugar, Mercyland), Nate Query (The Decemberists), Steve Drizos (Jerry Joseph and The Jackmormons), Daniel Hunt (Neko Case, M Ward), and Stuart Bogie (The Hold Steady, Goose). “I was really moved by some of the people that were willing to apply their talents to it,” says Hood. “There are people that play on this that I’ve been a huge fan of for a long time, and for them to be a part of a record I made is a big honor to me. I made a wish list of people that I would love to be on this record, and I was kind of blown away that with the vast majority of them, it worked out.”
Drive-By Truckers have released 14 studio albums and played well over 2,500 shows in the past twenty-eight years. They also released a 35-song, career-spanning box set in 2015 that was recorded live at The Fillmore in San Francisco. "Southern Rock Opera," Drive-By Truckers' best-known work, is a concept album that examines growing up in the post-civil rights South and something called "The Duality of the Southern Thing." Hood penned an article for The Bitter Southerner in 2013 titled "The New(er) South," and in it he revisits many of those same themes found on the record by giving a glimpse into his first 28 years of life in Alabama. "I grew up as a living part of the legacy of Muscle Shoals music," Hood says. His father, David Hood, co-founded Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and was a bassist in the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section, more casually known as "The Swampers."
Hood and his family relocated to beautiful Portland, Oregon in the summer of 2015, where they have been renovating a 100-year-old house. In addition to touring, recording and writing, Hood has also recently done some acting with small roles in a couple of films ("The Dark Divide" with David Cross and an indie film called "Ragged Heart"). He has also completed filming a small role in the upcoming indie film called “Sweetwater Road,” set to be released in 2025.