942. Drive-By Truckers - Southern Rock Opera (2001)

Track Listing

CD 1:

1. Days Of Graduation
2. Ronnie And Neil
3. 72 (This Highway's Mean)
4. Dead, Drunk And Naked
5. Guitar Man Upstairs
6. Birmingham
7. The Southern Thing
8. Three Great Alabama Icons
9. Wallace
10. Zip City
11. Moved

CD 2:

1. Let There Be Rock
2. Road Cases
3. Women Without Whiskey
4. Plastic Flowers On The Highway
5. Cassie's Brother
6. Life In The Factory
7. Shut Up And Get On The Plane
8. Greenville To Baton Rouge
9. Angels And Fuselage

Review

So a 2 CD Rock Opera about Ronnie Van Zandt and Alabama in general. That is a pretty nifty idea, the only problem is the fact that the Drive-By Truckers aren't really Lynyrd Skynyrd and the fact that they often attempt to be them comes across as a bit of a failure at times.

There is enough music here for a couple of great tracks, however, and they really shine on the more historical ones, coming across almost as a mix of The Minutemen and Lynyrd.

So that is the good thing about the album being so long. The bad thing is that the album is much too long for the hit and miss quality of it. So in concept it is pretty great, the lyrics are actually interesting as a history lesson and some of the songs work really well... but then most don't and you have to listen to 90 minutes of it.

Track Highlights

1. Three Great Alabama Icons
2. Ronnie and Neil
3. Angels and Fuselage
4. Dead, Drunk and Naked

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The record was originally self-released on Soul Dump Records. It was re-released on July 16, 2002 by Lost Highway Records. The album was financed by issuing promissory notes in exchange for loans from fans, family and friends of the band.

Ronnie and Neil: