The Drive By Truckers are the standard bearers for Southern Rock, but the band took a big hit this year when Jason Isbell departed to record his solo debut, Sirens of the Ditch. Though the split was said to be mutually desired, Isbell helped to energize two of the Truckers’s best albums, Decoration Day and The Dirty South. The situation is muddied further by Shonna Tucker, Isbell’s ex-wife, who he brought into the Truckers and then left behind. Longtime fans realize that the band is a changeable quantity, but the departure of a songwriter and guitar player of Isbell’s caliber might have signaled tough times ahead.  The Truckers responded by making Tucker a full member of the band, adding legendary organist Spooner Oldham and welcoming founding member John Neff back into the fold. As the DBT headed back into the studio, though, the question remained whether the three additions would equal the one departure. Redneckers and music critics need not be worried. The Truckers have released three songs from their upcoming album Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, and “I’m Sorry Huston,” “A Ghost to Most,” and “The Righteous Path” indicate it’s going to be a good year musically for the PBR crowd.

“I’m Sorry Huston” – the first song that Tucker has written for the band, sounds like one of those great Nashville torch songs from the seventies. It is almost impossible to read this without the subtext of the Isbell breakup, but a great vocal even without it.

“A Ghost to Most” – Mike Cooley tells hard living stories better than anybody, and this song has the same up-tempo rhythm and lyrical wordplay of “Gravity’s Gone,” the best track on A Blessing and a Curse. Though Patterson Hood is the face of the Drive By Truckers, Cooley’s songs embody its soul,

“The Righteous Path” – One of Patterson Hood’s continuing themes as a songwriter is the state of the good old boy in the new millennium. It’s hard out there with the specter of layoffs, crystal meth, and the boredom resulting from familial responsibilities. Hood offers a killer riff and a compelling story of another normal guy trying to make his way and do the right thing, which are both things to be appreciated.

[Stereogum / Myspace]