The news coming down the wire from Europe last November read like a World War II dispatch from the Battle of the Bulge: the troops were sick, tired, beat up, and beat down – but still marching on.
The Drive-By Truckers were on the homestretch of a successful year, having won the applause of fans and critics alike with the release of The Big To-Do, their latest studio album of new material. Keyboardist Jay Gonzalez (who came on board full-time in 2008) had mastered the art of how to co-exist with a three-guitar-plus-a-bass lineup, complementing and challenging them at the same time. Drummer Brad Morgan and bassist Shonna Tucker fed the beast’s boiler, while John Neff continued to blow listeners away with his guitar abilities, ranging from achingly-lovely pedal steel to crunchy six-string riffs. And band co-founders Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley were full-steam-ahead being Cooley and Hood: a little bit of yin, a little bit of yang, some great songwriting, killer riffs, and a whole lot of music that speaks to the everyman.
Yeah, it was a great year, but a hard one, as well. The Truckers have never been a band to slack off, whether the going was tough or the going was easy. They were worn out before they got on the plane to head to Europe in November for three weeks of shows (21 of them in 24 nights), but you know … the rock show must go on, y’all.
And then the unthinkable happened: Mike Cooley hit the wall. Literally. Two weeks into the tour, Cooley – the seemingly invincible Stroker Ace of the dangling cigarette and non-poser presence – collapsed in a hotel hallway in Belgium just as the band was getting ready to trudge north for a string of Scandinavian shows.
The first post-Cooley-crash announcement was made by management: the Truckers were canceling the remainder of the tour and coming home to heal up. A scheduled appearance at Warren Haynes’ Annual Christmas Jam was called off, too. It sounded serious.
And then came the word that all had been waiting for on the band’s website from Patterson Hood.
Y’ALL:
Just so everyone knows,
Cooley’s ok. I’m ok.
Everyone’s ok.
Hood wrote that Cooley had been diagnosed with exhaustion and dehydration – plus had received some stitches from his bout with the wall. The rest of the band were still on their feet, but it was clear they had run out of steam. They were flying home to rest and regroup.
It was an apology and a concession speech, for sure. But Hood signed off with:
Get them Go-Go Boots ready, for DBT will rise again.
See y’all in NYC for New Year’s.
Patterson Hood
Crash-and-burn be damned: the way the band tore through their New Year’s run in New York, you’d never have known how wrung-out they’d been a few weeks earlier. Forget the funeral flowers, baby; the Drive-By Truckers were alive and well.
2011 finds the Truckers banging on all cylinders with two new projects to unleash on the world. The Secret To A Happy Ending, a documentary by filmmaker Barr Weissman, captures the band during the high point of the period when Jason Isbell was a Trucker – while managing to deal with the hard times of Isbell’s divorce from Shonna Tucker and his eventual departure from the band in a manner that’s open and honest while respectful at the same time.
And then there’s Go-Go Boots, the Truckers’ latest studio album, which has everything you love about the band (yes, boys and girls, don’t worry: there are two songs on this one about men of the cloth turned bad) plus a whole lotta soul that fits them perfectly.
In amongst all the smoke and swagger, the raunch and the rock and the roll, there is an element of grace and strength to what the Drive-By Truckers are doing these days – simply by still being together and creating music. They are survivors.
Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood were kind enough to share some of their precious time at home with us recently to talk a little about “country soul,” songwriting, dead heroes, and guitars.
Part I – Mike Cooley
It’s easy for rock writers to compare guitarist/vocalist Mike Cooley to Keith Richards. Cooley has the same dog-with-a-bone attention to a song’s groove combined with a natural … well … Keefness, you could say; a cool stage demeanor that hasn’t changed, no matter the degree of fame achieved by the Drive-By Truckers.
But to get closer to the real Mike Cooley, you’d have to add in some of the storytelling abilities of folks like Larry Brown and Mark Twain and stir in some of the pure country heart of Johnny Cash. Then you’d be getting somewhere.
This is a man blessed with the ability to write simple yet profound truths – and rock your living ass off when the songs call for it.
Our visit with Mike Cooley begins with a meteorological discussion of Groundhog Day.
BR: I’m guessing it’s not a raging snowstorm where you are in Alabama today.
MC: Naw – and I’m staying right here, too. (laughs) For the first time this winter, I’m not about to go in the dumbest direction I could possibly go. (laughter)
BR: Well, we’d love to have you up here in Maine, but don’t come today.
MC: You know, I saw the weather report and looked at the calendar to see if there was, like, a Chicago show this week that I didn’t know about. I figured, “It’s snowing like hell – we must have something going on up there.” (laughter)
BR: Man, I don’t know what you had for weather over in Europe back in November, but that was the tail end of a long year for the band, wasn’t it? You really beat yourselves to a pulp in 2010.
MC: Yeah, it was pretty crazy. That European tour itself was long by anybody’s standards. We never do more than three weeks to a stretch – I don’t think we ever have. Two over there’s about all you can stand with all the travel … it just takes a lot more out of you.
So, yeah, we were beat to death and it was cold and disagreeable … (laughs)
BR: And you’d been over there how long when you pulled the plug on the tour at the end of November?
MC: Two weeks – I think we had about a week still ahead of us. We were headed for Scandinavia and the way the weather was turning, our driver had already told us to be prepared for the very real possibility of not making a couple of those shows.
I really wasn’t looking forward to it, so I just threw myself against the wall. (laughter)
BR: The truth comes out! (laughter)
MC: Naw – I legitimately just passed out. We were joking about it after and they all said, “Man, you really were sick of this tour, weren’t you? You went and cracked your head open!” (laughs)
BR: I wanted to ask you how you’re feeling now. Since you all got back home, you haven’t exactly been on bed rest. I know there’ve been a bunch of shows …
MC: Yeah, we’ve been busy since then, but it’s more annual stuff that we were looking forward to: the 40 Watt show that we do every year; the New Year’s Eve thing that was a lot of fun; that kind of stuff. It’s been cool.
But everybody’s feeling fine now. I went to the doc here and got some tests done just to make sure and they said, “Well, you were probably just too damn tired!” (laughter)
BR: Well, it happens, man. I’ll be 53 here in a few weeks and I still compare everything I do to back when I was working on the water. My brain thinks I can still live like I did when I was 20 – go hard for days, no sleep, all the other stuff – and I get aggravated when I realize I can’t any more.
MC: Oh, yeah – ain’t that the truth. (laughs) In a way, I’m glad there wasn’t anything with me, except being too old to live this way. (laughter)
But you’re right – it pisses me off. I’m like, “Goddammit, I don’t want to hear that ‘too old’ stuff, either!” (laughter)
BR: Well, here’s something that might make you feel better: a week ago today, I did interviews with Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady from Hot Tuna, okay? And those guys have been playing music together for over 50 years now. You and Patterson are at least halfway there, aren’t you?
MC: Yeah, we hit 25 years that we’ve been playing together last year … (laughs)
BR: It’s cool to have the friendship that’s lasted that long, let alone the working relationship.
MC: It seems to be either one way or the other: people get a band together and it peters out real quick, or there’s at least one partnership at the core of things that stays together for long time.
BR: Knowing that’s the story with you and Patterson, I’m wondering if you think about what he’s going to contribute to a song when you’re writing it? Or the band as a whole?
MC: I try not to think about anything in particular, actually. I’ve done it before and I’m still guilty of it: I’ll get something in mind for a song and be shooting for that, you know? And that’s a pretty surefire way to make sure I’m not going to get anything at all. (laughter) Until I get that out of my head and reach the point where whatever comes out comes out – that’s when I get it. But no matter how many times you make that mistake, you’re going to keep making it – every time you shoot for it.
BR: What about “Little Pony And The Great Big Horse” on The Fine Print? There’s a song of yours that’s absolutely just sweet and lovely – a nice one for our little grandkids to listen to, actually – but the original story was a dirty joke, right?
MC: (laughs) Yeah, but I wasn’t thinking of that joke when I wrote it.
BR: Really?
MC: Naw – if I had been thinking about the joke, I couldn’t have written the song. That’s exactly what I was explaining, you see? After the fact – and it’s the case with almost every one of my songs – it was, “Oh, shit …” (laughter)
“Little Pony” isn’t really about the joke, but it parallels it. If somebody had told me that joke, though, I wouldn’t have said, “I’m gonna write a song about that.” It would either never happen or I would and it would be awful. (laughs)
BR: Well, prior to listening to Go-Go Boots, “Little Pony” would’ve been one of my favorite acoustic songs you’ve written – that and “Space City” – but “Cartoon Gold” on the new album is all-time, man. It’s a beautiful tune.
MC: Thank you. That just popped into my head – the whole image was just there, you know? The song just had a good feel to begin with and the track the band ended up getting is one of my favorites that we’ve ever recorded. It flows just the way I wanted it to – sounds really smooth and effortless and feels good to listen to. That’s what I wanted.
BR: I’ve always felt that even your harder-rocking tunes could stand on their own just sitting on the couch with an acoustic guitar – that Keith Richards thing of, “There’s always an acoustic at the heart of a good rock and roll song.”
MC: That’s right.
BR: Do you write primarily on the acoustic?
MC: Yeah – almost everything.
BR: Speaking of guitars, that Baxendale acoustic I’ve seen you playing in some of the video clips is a lovely-looking guitar, man.
MC: It’s amazing, isn’t it? That’s Scott Baxendale … he’s got quite a story.
BR: Maybe that’s something I should look into doing – an interview with Scott.
MC: Oh, you really should. He’s got a fascinating story to tell – a great history and a really interesting guy; really engaging to talk to.
BR: And your main electric these days is a Tele-style Baxendale, right?
MC: Yeah, that’s pretty much the only one I use – I love that thing. Right after I got to know Scott several years ago, he built that guitar for me. It’s custom in every sense of the word and it’s just right for me – but if I’d told him what to build, I would’ve fucked it up. (laughter) He just built it and sent it to me; I could not have dreamed up anything more perfect.
BR: How did he know …?
MC: Well, he’s very good at it, of course. He listened to the records and became a fan of the band right away. He saw us live several times and watched, like, where I tend to hang out on the neck and the size of my hand and everything … and he incorporated every bit of that into the building of the guitar. It wasn’t an accident that it turned out the way it did. (laughs)
BR: I didn’t realize until recently that Patterson tunes down a full step. [Note: rather than standard tuning of EADGBE, low to high, Hood tunes down to DGCFAD.] Do you all?
MC: Yeah, that’s right – and that’s another thing that Scott incorporated into the building of the guitar.
BR: And heavy gauge strings because of the slacker tension from being tuned down?
MC: That’s right – .011 on the small end … whatever the heaviest ones are you can buy in a store. They’re not custom gauge or anything.
BR: I noticed you were credited with some banjo a couple of times on Go-Go Boots – are you going to start playing some banjo live?
MC: I don’t really play it much, but it’s fun, man. (laughs)
BR: Oh, you ought to – it sounds great on “Cartoon Gold” and “Assholes”. It’s a nice layer of sound underneath everything.
MC: Oh, I love the banjo. I’ve played it over the years on records we’ve done, but I’ve never really taken the time to learn how to play the damn thing. (laughter) I don’t even know if what I tune it to is a real “banjo tuning,” but I think it is. Every time I pick it up, I kind of have to relearn a few of the basic fingerings that match up with where the guitar chords are. Most of the time I just find the right note and get in position and let my right hand do the work. I don’t really play as much as I just use it, you know? That might be a better way of putting it.
BR: Listening to Go-Go Boots, I’m having a hard time finding the right words to describe the vibe of the album. You tell me; I’m stuck on “country soul.”
MC: Yeah, that’s kind of how I hear it, too. I mean, I haven’t really spent a lot of time with the finished album, honestly. I don’t with any of them. By the time a record’s done, I’m pretty damn familiar with it, you know? By the time it’s in your hand, I’m sick of it. (laughter)
But, yeah – that’s exactly how I’d describe the sound of this record; there’s a lot more of the country elements that were in some of our earlier stuff, but there’s more Tony Joe White than Conway Twitty. (laughs)
BR: And that soul side of things brings us to Eddie Hinton and the two songs of his that you cover on this album: “Where’s Eddie” and “Everybody Needs Love”. It’s sad to know that there are a lot of people who won’t know who Eddie Hinton was – but at least you might inspire them to look into his music a little deeper.
MC: You know, it wasn’t until after he died in ‘95 that a lot of people became big fans of Eddie’s music. Several years after he passed away, one of the UK labels started re-releasing his old records; of course, a lot of those Southern soul guys were better known in Europe and the UK than they were in America.
BR: Just like a lot of the old blues guys that were the inspirations to bands like the Stones.
MC: Exactly, man. I mean, Keith Richards knew who Eddie Hinton was, you know? I remember the story of when Keith met Phil Walden of Capricorn Records years ago. Keith had been carrying a copy of Eddie’s album Very Extremely Dangerous with him at all times, and the first words out of his mouth when he met Phil was, “When are you going to put something else out from this Eddie Hinton guy, man? It’s just incredible.” (laughs)
BR: And it’s just a shame that he wasn’t recognized when he was around.
MC: It’s the nature of the genius. Take Brian Wilson – he’s well known, of course, but probably not for his true genius as much as the rest of it, you know? Eddie was as “out there” as it gets and it would’ve taken an alternate reality or some sort of parallel universe for him to actually achieve what he deserved.
BR: I know he was a friend of Patterson’s family and I’ll ask him about that. But I have to tell you, even though there’s a number of fine original songs on Go-Go Boots, your cover of Eddie’s “Everybody Needs Love” is amazing. It’s a hell of a song.
MC: Oh, man – I would give anything to be able to write a song that’s that simple, yet just fucking brilliant at the same time. That’s Songwriting 101 right there: write it on a gum wrapper and it’s brilliant. (laughs)
BR: David Barbe is behind the board again on Go-Go Boots as your producer and engineer. It strikes me that David is to you what Tom Dowd was to the Allman Brothers … he just plain gets it.
MC: Absolutely. He’s a big Tom Dowd fan – we all are. David’s part of the band. From very early on, it wasn’t a band/producer relationship – he was the member of the band operating the equipment in the control room and offering suggestions, you know? (laughs) David understood and could see the vision just as clearly as any of us.
BR: Right from the opening track, “I Do Believe”, Brad’s drum sound is great on this album. I’ve likened him to Charlie Watts before –
MC: Yeah, you got it.
BR: A big, big sound out of a very basic drum kit. Never overplays; always nails the groove.
MC: Brad’s drum sound is constantly evolving. David always has some more ideas every time we go in there – and Brad’s always thinking about the way his stuff sounds and working on his end of it. Between that and David handling the technical end – trying different microphones and what not – it really is a great sound. And it doesn’t take us very long to get it now. A lot of people go into the studio and might take them a week – or more – to get the sound they’re after. With us, it’s like a day. (laughs)
But, yeah – Brad’s really become one of those guys that’s a drummer’s drummer, you know? He puts a lot of thought into the part – not just the rhythm and the tempo, but a part. Like a soloist.
BR: He and Shonna make a great team. I know she had plenty of experience before she became a Trucker, but it feels like her playing’s still going places, along with her singing and writing.
MC: Oh, yeah – it’s a pleasure to have that kind of talent in the band, man. It really is.
BR: To my ears, Jay Gonzalez’ keyboards are more prominent on Go-Go Boots. I think this album is going to provide listeners with more chances to appreciate his playing.
MC: Jay’s been such a great fit. There’s one way to sum it up: we’ve played with three keyboard players over the years, you know? Spooner Oldham, Booker T Jones, and Jay Gonzalez. (laughter) I think that says it all.
BR: And there’s John Neff, who’s all over the new album with steel guitar, dobro, and regular 6-string. John has a knack for playing these tasteful parts that capture the emotion of each tune.
MC: Absolutely – and he always has. What some people don’t realize is that he was a founding member of the band years ago. We had a good chemistry and could play well together right from the very start. Now that we’ve evolved into this line-up with John back as a full-time member and switching back and forth on his different guitars, it gets better and better every night. We’re able to create a really good tangle without a chaotic mess. (laughter)
BR: And that’s a good thing to go for. (laughter) Oh – I wanted to tell you this before I let you go, because I know you’re a Johnny Cash fan. There’s a new album being released later this month called Bootlegs II that includes some old radio show stuff from the 50s and some demos that Johnny cut at Sun Records.
MC: Oh, awesome – have you heard any of it?
BR: Yeah, I have. It’s great.
MC: Cool. I hope they do an LP – I’d like to have that on vinyl, man.
BR: Hey – here’s an idea: during your idle time –
MC: (laughs) Right, right.
BR: You ought to record an acoustic solo album of old Cash tunes.
MC: Oh, man. (laughs) I don’t know – I’ve thought of doing an album like that, but I’m gonna have to get a lot of time off. (laughter)
BR: I’ll mention that to Patterson when I talk to him later. Anything you want me to pass along to him, by the way?
MC: Naw – I talk to him enough as it is. (laughter)
BR: Good enough. All right – I’m going to let you go, Mike. Take care of yourself out there.
MC: (laughs) I will, man. Thanks.
