Singer/songwriter/guitarists Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley had already been struggling to make music together for more than a decade when they formed the Drive-By Truckers in 1996. As the 1999 live album Alabama Ass Whuppin’ documents, this early incarnation of their band — which also featured drummer Brad Morgan, the only other founding member who has remained amid several lineup changes — was an explosive unit that specialized in bitterly funny slice-of-life alt-country-rock, mostly about working-class or sub-working-class characters (many of them non-fictional), all from the South. more ›

When Jason Isbell first joined the Drive-By Truckers — just after the release of their breakthrough Southern Rock Opera — he looked a little out of place. Baby-faced and younger than founding Truckers Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, he seemed like a little brother to the other two, stepping out of their shadow to take a solo or sing lead on one of his songs. more ›