After fighting writer’s block for four years, Drive-By Truckers singer/guitarist Mike Cooley is now back to work. English Oceans (ATO) is Cooley’s return to full-on songwriting—splitting the tracklist right down the middle after letting bandmate Patterson Hood steer the ship for the two albums prior—and is a return to form for the group as a whole. While DBT has never been a band to slack on the road or in the studio, English Oceans has the vigor and exuberance that made it one of America’s best rock groups. Cooley, Hood, bassist Matt Patton and multi-instrumentalist Jay Gonzalez will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Drive-By Truckers feature.
Hood: There’s the ad on TV (have no idea what for) where the emasculated dad is trying to teach his son how to throw a ball. You can’t imagine the ridicule I receive from whatever company I happen to be keeping every time it comes on. I expect such from my partner Cooley (who actually usually takes pity on me, or perhaps just doesn’t like acknowledging the obvious), and perhaps my sweet wife (as that’s what a sweet wife sometimes has to do in order to remain both), but it comes from close friends, my children, even the road crew, who last time I checked still receive their paychecks sort of from me.
I bring this up, only because I have to write about something, perhaps I drank that pot of coffee too fast, and it’s definitely too early in the day to crack open that first beer, and I just came in from throwing the ball to my one-year-old white lab Pearl. (That would be Minnie Pearl if you don’t mind three syllables).
She’s actually only slightly better at retrieving the ball than I am throwing it. Often I have to chase her to try to get her to give me the ball back, therefore adding to the sad spectacle but at least increasing the level of much needed exercise. You can picture Sasquatch, with a grandpa hat, out of breath, running with a giant ceramic cup of coffee saying intelligent things like, “Pearl, bring me the ball. Bring me the ball. Bring me the ball!!!”
Pearl doesn’t judge me.
