One of the few downsides of my job is that I don't often get to listen to music purely for enjoyment. Keeping up on the nonstop flood of new releases takes up much of my time, and because I love a lot of different kinds of music, I run out of hours in the day really quickly. I've liked just about everything I've heard by Drive-By Truckers, but I've never spent a lot of time with any of their albums—part of the problem is that longtime Reader contributor Monica Kendrick is a big fan and usually bogarts the assignments! Whenever I put on one of their records, though, I think to myself, "This is really strong—I need to listen to this more."

The new Go-Go Boots (ATO) has been described as the band's spin on country soul, in contrast to their usual southern-fried rock—though neither tag does them justice. Drive-By Truckers play tonight and Saturday at the Vic in support of the album, which salutes country-soul pioneer and tragic and tortured genius Eddie Hinton with a couple of covers. (David Hood, father of DBT coleader Patterson Hood, played behind Hinton as a studio musician at Muscle Shoals in the 70s.) My favorite tunes on Go-Go Boots are Patterson Hood's originals, though: it's got a few of his usual southern-gothic tales of murder, infidelity, and hypocrisy (both the title track and the epic "The Fireplace Poker," which you can hear below, describe preachers offing their spouses), and the tender opening cut, "I Do Believe," is a sweet remembrance of his grandmother full of details like "I was only five years old / Riding in your top-down Mustang." The material written and sung by Mike Cooley is looser and less heavy, with a stronger country twang—multiple songwriters with different approaches create a lot of the band's depth and range. One of these weekends I definitely need to pull out their other albums.

Drive-By Truckers: "The Fireplace Poker":

photo: Danny Clinch

Today's playlist:

Kneebody, You Can Have Your Moment (Winter & Winter)
Martial Solal, At Newport '63 (RCA Victor)
Various artists, Gumboot Guitar: Zulu Street Guitar Music From South Africa (Topic)
Russ Freeman/Richard Twardzik, Trio (Pacific Jazz)
Sweet Talks, The Kusum Beat (Soundway)