Line by Line: Drive-By Truckers' Shonna Tucker Reads 'The Fine Print'

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IT TAKES A LOT of energy to be a Drive-By Truckers fan. The Athens, Ga.-based band is seemingly always on tour, in the studio or working on side projects. Which means there's always new material for fans to digest.

The latest morsel in DBT's musical smorgasbord is "The Fine Print," (New West) a rarities collection culled from throughout the band's storied career.

Such compilation albums are a time-tested stopgap release for some bands, but this album of spare parts actually seems to function as a cohesive whole. It's also the fourth DBT-related release this year: In April, the band backed Booker T. for "Potato Hole," and its subsequent tour; in June, bandleader Patterson Hood put out his second solo album (a solo tour followed); and last month, the band dropped its second live documentary, "Live from Austin Texas," a DVD/CD of a show filmed for PBS's "Austin City Limits" last year.

Think that's too much? Add to it a tour that will swing into the South in October and studio release number eight, which is due next year.

What keeps the DBT machine cranking? Creative compulsion.

"We all have so much in our heads that we want to get out or we'd go insane, I guess," bassist Shonna Tucker said. "It's like a kid — just nervous energy. It's always been the case with three songwriters in the band. There is a lot of creativity that has to come out. We all just love it so much and want to keep it going while it's happening. I figure one day we'll be tired and want to slow down, but not now."

Along with nine original songs (some new, some previously released), "The Fine Print" also finds the band covering Tom Petty, Warren Zevon, Tom T. Hall and Bob Dylan. It even features two songs by former guitarist — and Tucker's ex-husband — Jason Isbell, as well as Tucker's first lead vocal on a DBT recording ("Like a Rolling Stone").

In fact, much of the compilation comes from Tucker's first days in the band. She stepped in as Hood and Co. were finishing 2004's "The Dirty South," re-cutting her bass onto 22 songs that week.

"When I listen to ['The Fine Print'] I think, 'Oh wow, that sounds like me five years ago," she said. "We didn't want to fix it too much — we don't want it to sound like we do now. This is all cool stuff that we thought should be out that we did a long time ago."

We asked Tucker to give us a guided tour through the album, track-by-track.

» "George Jones Talkin' Cell Phone Blues"
I think if you ask [Hood] about it, [the song's thrust is] if you're going to drink and drive don't talk on the phone — or vice a versa. Just choose one vice or don't do any of them.

» "Rebels"
[Producers behind "King of the Hill"] did ask us to do [this Tom Petty cover], which is kind of an unusual situation. All of it was a unique thing for us to get to do. We were booked in the studio anyway, so it worked out great. One day while we were in the studio we just knocked it out. So that probably has a lot to do why we were sounding and feeling so good — we were doing our thing anyways. Then, we got to go and be a cartoon for a minute.

» "Uncle Frank (alternate version)"
"TVA"
These two songs are ... two different views of two different stories and opinions of [the Tennessee Valley Authority] and how it affected so many lives. [Mike Cooley and Isbell] wrote those songs at separate times, before they even met. I'm pretty sure Jason wrote "TVA" before he joined the band, even. So it was all coincidence.

» "Goode's Field Road (alternate version)"
This song Patterson has been working on for years. Every time the band went into the studio to make a record he pulled it out — even before I was in the band — and tried to do it. So he was hanging onto this song for a while. We got the version that's on "The Fine Print" and it was going to go on the record and at the last minute he said, "No. You know what, that's still not it." And even though we loved it, he just thought there was something else he wanted to do with it.

» "The Great Car Dealer War"
I don't have too much information about this one. It was a true story, it happened in Alabama. The song is the story, pretty much exactly how it happened. It's full of murder and redneck murders — it's a pretty serious song.

» "Mama Bake a Pie (Daddy Kill a Chicken)"
Tom T. Hall wrote this song, and we're just incredibly huge fans of Tom T. Hall. We did this song the same day we did "Rebels" in the studio. It was for some sort of English magazine that was putting out a compilation. I don't think it ever came out. We had it on tape this whole time and we all loved it. When Patterson did solo shows he'd always do this, and he always said he wished he'd written this song.

» "When the Well Runs Dry"
We all love the song and we love the track — it's incredible. Whenever you make a record that's the hardest part, narrowing it down. Bands struggle with coming up with enough songs to make one record and we always come up with enough for two or three. It has nothing to do with we didn't like the song or whatever.

» "Mrs. Claus' Kimono"
Patterson — it's just the way his mind works. I can't explain how the song came about. I think he was asked at one time to do a Christmas song for a Christmas compilation and this is what he did."

» "Play It All Night Long"
The band was covering [this Warren Zevon] song when I joined, so I think that was a song they liked to play. We do a few covers at the end of the night when we're all feeling pretty good and sweaty and we've been playing for a couple of hours. We'll pull out a couple of covers and that's one of them. It's a great song and the band does the song well. We love his writing. ... And also we get to scream out "Sweet Home Alabama!" so maybe that has a little bit to do with it.

» "Little Pony and the Great Big Horse"
Some of the things are just one rough take, even. I think Cooley's song he does by himself was just one magical night, him sitting in the middle of the studio drunk as a goat with his guitar and it happened — magically. It's such a beautiful song and Cooley wrote that before his first child was born. It's his children's song, we call it.

» "Like a Rolling Stone"
If I recall it was for Uncut magazine, a compilation for a Dylan tribute. ... Again we were in the studio already and we had been working all day and it was late at night. We said, "Well, do you guys feel like working on 'Like a Rolling Stone?' We can get that done." Cooley started saying, "All right, who's going to sing it?" Everyone kind of looks at each other and all of a sudden Cooley shouts out: "I don't think I even remember the damn lyrics!" So the idea came about where we all took a verse. I think it was because we'd had several bottles of whiskey. When we decided on everyone taking a verse, everyone pointed at me and said, "That means you too." I was like, "Oh, come on really?" And they talked me into it, and I guess it worked out OK.

It's kind of an absurd thought to even have enough gumption to try that song. It's like nobody should ever try that song. We did it our way. We didn't try to do it like Dylan or anything close to that. We just had fun with it. I love Cooley's verse on there. He's such a redneck — I love it. It's amazing that we actually pulled it off because there was a lot of drinking.

Written by Express' Rudi Greenberg
Photos courtesy Drive-By Truckers