Mike Cooley, Patterson Hood, and Jason Isbell in The Secret to a Happy Ending, Barr Weissman’s “love letter to rock and roll,” starring the Drive-By Truckers. It’s been nearly a decade since Southern Rock Opera — a perceptive, engrossing, and very loud meditation on Lynyrd Skynrd, race relations, and growing up and getting out — brought the Pitchfork crowd into the ever-broadening tent of Athens, GA’s Drive-By Truckers. Maryland-based documentarian Barr Weisman’s new DBT…

Drive-By Truckers Shonna Tucker, Mike Cooley, Brad Morgan, Patterson Hood, John Neff. 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 —…

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. Then came Decoration Day: the Truckers’ true coming out party,…

Monday >> Milwaukee-based indie pop quartet Maritime will be bringing their brand of sweet melodies to the Rock and Roll Hotel accompanied by the Swervedriver-inspired rock of Kansas City’s The Life and Times. We rarely get to make a Swervedriver reference, so enjoy it while you can. 8 p.m. >> Drive-By Truckers’ frontman Patterson Hood drops by the area for a show at the Birchmere in Alexandria. If you’re not familiar with the live stylings…