Live at Plan 9 July 13th, 2006 – Drive-By Truckers

I featured a Drive-By Truckers song that was really a Jason Isbell song, so I decided to make it up to them by featuring an entire album of theirs. I was debating about which studio album to look at, but ended up going with one of my all-time favorite live albums, recorded on July 13th, 2006, at Plan 9 Records in Virginia, as the title implies. The Truckers have some great live stuff, and objectively their album, It’s Great To Be Alive! is “better”, but I think I like Live At Plan 9 the best because it features the lineup from my favorite era of theirs, with Isbell on guitar and vocals, and his then-wife Shonna Tucker on bass. One of the things that attracts me to DBT live stuff is the general feeling of rawness to it. I use the word rawness in the same way that many people describe Jimmy Page’s “sloppy” live playing; it’s not a knock on the quality of the musicianship at all. Patterson Hood, one of the main masterminds behind the Truckers and somewhat of a guru when it comes to understanding the south and all its complexities, said himself that “It was by far our favorite show of the year and all these years later, I think it is one of the best performances from that era of the band“. They were playing for around two hundred people, and their payment for the show consisted of a case of PBR and two bottles of whiskey.

It’s hard for me to pick which songs to feature since this is a live album and it covers work from multiple studio albums, but I decided to go with a song written by each of the three main writers at the time. This isn’t me saying that these are the best songs that they’ve written, or even that this is the best version of the song, just my personal preferences from this particular album.

“Gravity’s Gone” – While I do love Patterson Hood, and he wrote the majority of what is one of my most treasured pieces of music ever, Southern Rock Opera (much more on that at a later date) Mike Cooley has always been my favorite trucker. The Drive-By Truckers are definitely sons of the South, but Mike brings a real nice twang to things. He plays his telecaster beautifully, and has one of my favorite drawls in all of southern rock. I really encourage y’all to check out his solo acoustic live album The Fool On Every Corner. If you like the Truckers in any capacity, he does some really nice, totally stripped down versions of Truckers songs he’d written up to that point. “Gravity’s Gone” is a hell of a country tune with some pretty humorous lyrics that certainly have a tinge of seriousness to them. The live version off of Plan 9 just kicks ass. Great vocals from Mike and really nice guitar work from all parties.

Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M50yoR-1ewg&list=OLAK5uy_kby34Zq_UJA0BB3cln1VqCbFlGW0q_row&index=6

“Goddamn Lonely Love” – The song that really got me hooked on the Truckers. That son of a bitch Jason Isbell got me. I mentioned in an earlier post that I think Jason will be remembered as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, in the company of those like John Prine and Kris Kristofferson. I think this is one of his three best songs he’s ever written. This has got to be one of the most gut wrenchingly sad songs ever written. Something about this live version (I believe it’s the only official DBT live version) just makes you wanna nod your head. Not as brutally sad as the studio version or an Isbell solo version, and I love what the band does with the guitars on this version.

Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c-mgJsupEk&list=OLAK5uy_kby34Zq_UJA0BB3cln1VqCbFlGW0q_row&index=20

“Let There Be Rock” – A song that consistently makes an appearance on my changes-every-day top ten songs list. With this one, Patterson Hood managed to pen an absolutely outstanding tribute to rock music and the bands of old without coming off in a cheesy or corny way. He is one of my favorites, if not my number one story teller in music. Featured on Southern Rock Opera originally, I love how he incorporates his own life and youth in the south in his work and I never thought I’d hear “Rogersville, Alabama” in a rock song. One of the coolest things from the Plan 9 show is when Isbell (just guessing off sound, could’ve been Cooley) sneaks in the riff from “The Boys Are Back In Town”. You can hear how much Patterson loves doing this one in this performance.

Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnWyHBMfWbc&list=OLAK5uy_kby34Zq_UJA0BB3cln1VqCbFlGW0q_row&index=18

Bonus – I could’ve written about each song off this album, but I didn’t to go in depth on some of these because I plan on doing a long form piece in the future that will feature The Drive-Bys fairly heavily, but still wanted to mention some stuff I like.

“Daddy’s Cup” – One of Cooley’s best, this is one of my favorites off of what many consider to be the band’s magnum opus The Dirty South. Just a killer southern rock song that pays tribute to the sport of auto racing. The live version just gets me fired up and ready to watch Dale Earnhardt highlights.

Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPlFhbFxTpE&list=OLAK5uy_kby34Zq_UJA0BB3cln1VqCbFlGW0q_row&index=23

“Marry Me” – I love the breakdown they throw in on this version, a super fun Truckers love song that gets the rough treatment on the Plan 9 record. Mike’s solo version from the album I mentioned earlier is great as well.

Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fMyw2bFLE&list=OLAK5uy_kby34Zq_UJA0BB3cln1VqCbFlGW0q_row&index=10

“Lookout Mountain” – A DBT live staple, one of their heaviest songs. Great way to close out the album. Seeing this one live last year at the Eastern was one of the highlights of my concert going career.

Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_kSPsoiczQ&list=OLAK5uy_kby34Zq_UJA0BB3cln1VqCbFlGW0q_row&index=25