Listen Up: Drive-By Truckers

"Brighter Than Creation's Dark" (New West)

Like bystanders in a redneck bar brawl, Drive-By Truckers' fans wait to see who hits the floor first: band founder, songwriter and singer Patterson Hood or former guitarist and potent writer Jason Isbell. Artistic scraps prompted Isbell to leave DBT last year, but the departure was amicable. Hood produced Isbell's debut CD, and the Truckers have come back with the explosive "Brighter Than Creation's Dark."

The 19-tune set was rehearsed and refined before live audiences before DBT took it to the studio. The roots of country rock, particularly Lynyrd Skynyrd, permeate the atmosphere and the song imagery. The lyrics, however, at times thick and obtuse, are closer to the deep pop of R.E.M.

Disillusionment with society's mores drives Hood's angry "The Righteous Path" while Mike Cooley's "Ghost to Most" is a frightful reflection of what happens to those gutted by stardom.

Bassist Shona Tucker's "The Purgatory Line" is country without the guilt, and her voice is as true to tradition as Tammy Wynette's.

Two of Hood's tunes come from encounters with returning Green Berets and the family of a soldier killed in the Middle East. A mantra that tries to justify killing, "The Man I Shot," is heartbreaking, as is the elegiac "The Home Front." And the new guitarist, John Neff, a DBT founder and constant collaborator? He's magic on the pedal steel guitar, and his electric guitar usually enhances the ambience. DOWNLOAD: "Checkout Time in Vegas"

-- Roberta Penn