Some of Booker T Jones’ more venerable fans might be looking at his pairing with the Drive By Truckers and thinking ‘who they hell are they?’ Fans of Bettye LaVette, whose comeback album The Scene Of The Crime was also backed by DBTs.
When you discover that DBT guitarist-singer Patterson Hood is son of Muscle Shoals bassist David Hood, things begin to make a little more sense.
But few would deny that the Truckers have paid their dues, in a career spanning 13 years and eight albums, setting stages alight with their infamous three-guitar take on rollocking rock ‘n’ roll.
Though the band has recently undergone a few shake-ups which saw Jason Isbell leave and his ex-wife Shonna Tucker step up take a greater role in singing and songwriting, their momentum continues to build. After releasing a sprawling double album, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, last year, the band have reportedly almost finished a new album. And that’s on top of recording with LaVette and Booker T and touring relentlessly!
The frenetic pace seems to have finally affected Hood who, when I catch up with him to talk about the band’s first Australian visit, is recovering from a nasty bout of pneumonia.
Tell me how did you guys come to be recording with Booker T?
Andy Kaulkin is the head of ANTI Records. He is the one who put us together with Bettye LaVette a couple of years ago and after that went so well he said he'd love to pair us with another artist sometime. He signed Booker this past summer and when Booker sent him the demos of the new songs, they were very guitar heavy and Andy said he immediately thought he should pair us together. Andy called me the day we played in Denver for the Democratic Convention and asked if we could do it. I said we were booked until Xmas, but after that we'd love to. He said he was thinking more like "next week". We had a week off between tours and did it right then. The only adjustment was originally they wanted us to fly out to LA but our wives would have killed us so they had to come to Athens so we could do it closer to home.
Bettye LaVette, Booker T, it looks like you’ve got the market cornered for backing comebacks by soul legends. How did the Booker T experience compare with the Bettye one?
In many ways they were polar opposite experiences. About the only thing they had in common is how much I like the finished album and how incredible both are artistically. Bettye is amazing, but at that time she was just having her first taste of commercial success after so many years of hardship and heartache. We took her down to Muscle Shoals where she had made that great unreleased Atlantic album in ‘72 and it was sort of an exorcism for her going back there after all these years re-connecting with such a horrific experience. Also she didn't really know who the fuck we were and certainly didn't trust us to not fuck up her new found success so it was a difficult album to make. In the end, everyone left happy and of course she's had such a phenomenal couple of years since that I'm sure it would be different if we ever worked together again.
Booker, on the other hand knew exactly what he wanted and for some reason came in trusting that we could provide it for him. We made the album in four days, recorded live in the studio and it was one of the most fun and amazing experiences of our lives.
Neil Young contributes guitar to the Booker T record. Did you actually do any live tracking with Neil Young? I mean as if getting to play with Booker T wasn’t special enough…
No shit. We didn't get to track with him or even meet him, although I met him a couple of times before. We played live in studio with Booker then they flew out next day to California and he put his parts on in one day. I didn't get to hear any roughs or anything after our four days until it was all finished and they sent me the finished album. We were all together listening in a van and when Neil's guitar kicked in on the first song, I wanted to pull my lighter out and scream like in an arena.
Above all, Potato Hole sounds like everyone’s having a lot of fun, how much of that spirit came from the Truckers and how much was it Booker T’s input?
Well hopefully both ways, but I have to give all kinds of credit to Booker for the vibe he brought to the proceedings. It all came together so fast, we didn't have time to learn the songs or get nervous or even think about it too much. We got offered the job on a Monday and within two weeks we had already made the album. We love to work fast and it was an extreme even for us. I wish every album could happen like that.
You’re now getting to play some pretty major festivals with Booker T…
Well, now the catch is we have to actually learn the songs. Making the album, we'd work it up, record it then over on to the next one. Now it's like. ‘What did I play do that song? Oh, is that you playing that? I thought it was me.’ We're all getting together in a few weeks to actually rehearse and I'm sure Booker will remind us all exactly what we need to know. He's an absolute genius.
How extensively have you guys gone back into Booker T’s catalogue to prepare songs for those sets?
I have the Stax box set (1) and a few Booker T and the MG's albums, but I have no idea what all he's going to want to do. Anything he wants to do, we're game. I got to see him play with The MG's last fall and it's still an absolutely amazing show so we had better bring our best game.