Drive-By Truckers have announced today’s premiere of ‘The Driver‘, the latest track from their upcoming 14th studio album, ‘Welcome 2 Club XIII‘. An official lyric video is streaming now on YouTube. ‘Welcome 2 Club XIII’ arrives via ATO Records on Friday, June 3. Pre-orders are available now. A hypnotic introduction to the album’s sprawling autobiography, ‘The Driver’ kicks off ‘Welcome 2 Club XIII’ with a darkly thrilling epic punctuated with lead-heavy riffs and Mississippi-bred singer-songwriter Schaefer Llana’s unearthly backing vocals. “Around the same era of Club XIII, I spent a lot of time driving around late at night when I couldn’t sleep,” says founding member/vocalist/guitarist Patterson Hood, “listening to music loud and often having a beer or two. Sometimes during those drives, I’d have these epiphanies about what to do with my life – like listening to Tim by The Replacements not long after it came out and deciding to drop out of school to try and make this whole band thing work.”
WATCH ‘THE DRIVER’ LYRIC VIDEO HERESTREAM ‘THE DRIVER’ ON SPOTIFY AND SOUNDCLOUDPRE-ORDER ALBUM ‘WELCOME 2 CLUB XIII’
Welcome 2 Club XIII also includes the spirited, horn-blasted “Every Single Storied Flameout” and the album’s swinging centrepiece, “Welcome 2 Club XIII,” both available now at all DSPs and streaming services; the latter track – which pays homage to the Muscle Shoals honky-tonk where founding members Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley got their start – is joined by an official music video streaming now via YouTube.
WATCH VIDEO FOR ‘WELCOME 2 CLUB XIII’ HEREWATCH VIDEO FOR ‘EVERY SINGLE STORIED FLAMEOUT’ HERE
Arriving as Drive-By Truckers enters its 26th year, ‘Welcome 2 Club XIII’ marks a sharp departure from the trenchant commentary of ‘The Unraveling’ and ‘The New OK’ (both released in 2020). Produced by longtime Drive-By Truckers collaborator David Barbe and mainly recorded at his studio in Athens, GA, ‘Welcome 2 Club XIII’ took shape over the course of three frenetic days in summer 2021 – a doubly extraordinary feat considering that the band had no prior intentions of making a new album. Featuring background vocals from the likes of Margo Price, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, and Mississippi-bred singer/songwriter Schaefer Llana, ‘Welcome 2 Club XIII’ was recorded live with most songs cut in one or two takes, fully harnessing Drive-By Truckers’ freewheeling energy. Songs like epic, darkly thrilling ‘The Driver’ and the spirited, horn-blasted ‘Every Single Storied Flameout’ see the band – whose lineup also includes keyboardist/guitarist Jay Gonzalez, bassist Matt Patton, and drummer Brad Morgan – looking back on their formative years with both deadpan pragmatism and profound tenderness, instilling each song with the kind of lived-in detail that invites bittersweet reminiscence of your own misspent youth. “Cooley and I have been playing together for 37 years now,” Hood says. “That first band might have failed miserably on a commercial level, but I’m really proud of what we did back then. It had a lot to do with who we ended up becoming.” Drive-By Truckers – who just completed their annual four-day ‘Heathen Homecoming’ event at Athens, GA’s famed 40 Watt – are currently celebrating ‘Welcome 2 Club XIII’ with a marathon live schedule.
For complete details and ticket information, please visit www.drivebytruckers.com/shows.
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERSLIVE 2022MAY 24 – Helsinki – Tavastia Club †26 – Stockholm – Berns †27 – Oslo – Rockefeller †28 – Copenhagen – Amager Bio †29 – Aarhus – Train †31 – Hamburg – Markthalle † JUNE1 – Berlin – Kesselhaus †2 – Koln – Kantine †3 – Antwerp – De Roma †5 – Raalte, Netherlands – Ribs and Blues †6 – Amsterdam – Paradiso †7 – Brighton – Chalk †8 – London – O2 Forum †9 – Leeds – University Stylus †11 – Dublin – Vicar Street †12 – Glasgow – SWG3 TV Studio †14 – Tilburg, Netherlands – 013 (Jupiler Zaal) †15 – Paris – La Maroquinerie †17 – Mendizabala, Vitoria-Gasteiz – Azkena Rock Festival19 – Eridge Park, UK – Black Deer Festival JULY14 – Breckenridge, CO – Riverwalk Center15 – Denver, CO – Levitt Pavilion16 – Kansas City, MO – Knuckleheads19 – Omaha, NE – Falconwood Park20 – Minneapolis, MN – Utepils Brewing22 – Des Moines, IA – Hoyt Sherman Place23 – Dayton, OH – Dayton Masonic Center24 – Kalamazoo, MI – Bell’s Beer Garden27 – Fort Wayne, IN – The Clyde Theatre29 – St. Louis, MO – Open Highway Music Festival30 – Maryville, TN – The Shed31 – Wilmington, NC – Greenfield Lake Amphitheater AUGUST2 – Virginia Beach, VA – Elevation 274 – Deerfield, MA – Tree House Brewing Company5 – Buffalo, NY – Town Ballroom8 – Patchogue, NY – Patchogue Theatre10 – Isle of Palms, SC – The Windjammer11 – Isle of Palms, SC – The Windjammer12 – Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theatre13 – Pelham, TN – The Caverns SEPTEMBER16 – Louisville, KY – Bourbon & Beyond * w/Special Guest Lydia Loveless† w/Special Guest Jerry Joseph
TRACKLIST:The DriverMaria’s Awful DisclosuresShake and PineWe will never wake you up in the morningWelcome 2 Club XIIIForged In Hell and Heaven SentEvery Single Storied FlameoutBilly Ringo In The DarkWilder Days
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