Drive-By Truckers

Drive-By Truckers are an American Southern rock band formed in Athens, Georgia in 1996, built around the songwriting partnership of Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, two friends originally from the Muscle Shoals area of Alabama. The band is known for its twin-guitar attack, narrative-driven lyrics, and a sound that draws on classic Southern rock, punk energy, and country storytelling, often grappling directly with the contradictions of Southern identity, class, and history.

Their breakthrough came with the sprawling concept album Southern Rock Opera, which used the mythology of Lynyrd Skynyrd to explore the region's complicated legacy. The band's most celebrated run came with albums such as Decoration Day and The Dirty South, years when singer-guitarist Jason Isbell and bassist Shonna Tucker were also members and contributing writers, adding a third songwriting voice before Isbell's departure in 2007.

Over three decades the Truckers have remained prolific and restless, moving from character-driven Southern narratives toward more overtly political material on later albums like American Band. Hood and Cooley have remained the band's constant core, cycling through a rotating cast of collaborators while keeping the group's reputation as one of the hardest-touring and most literate acts in American rock.