The Drive-By Truckers have always been interested in social and political matters, even in their early days when they wanted to be the bastard child of
Lynyrd Skynyrd and
the Replacements -- their breakthrough album, 2001's
Southern Rock Opera, found room for songs about race, class, and the burdens of the legacy of the American South even as they obsessed over a band they called Betamax Guillotine. But it was 2016's
American Band where the group dove headfirst into open and impassioned editorializing as political, cultural, and racial division gripped the United States, and by fate as much as by design, their next two albums, The Unraveling and
The New OK (both released in 2020), would also look deep into the heart of a damaged nation. This extended contemplation of America's flaws seems to have worn on the
DBTs a bit, and 2022's
Welcome 2 Club XIII represents a detour, an opportunity to focus on the personal rather than the political for a while, and most of the songs are rooted in memory, a look into the past as a filter into the present. If one hoped this would mean the
Drive-By Truckers were going to start kicking up their heels and seriously rocking again, it looks like they're going to have to wait a little while longer. While the title song is a rollicking and sometimes hilarious tale from
Patterson Hood of playing a sleazy state-line bar where cheap beer, bad cocaine, and ridiculous cover bands rule the roost, most of
Welcome 2 Club XIII feels somber and reflective, and the opening track, "The Driver," full of foolish, youthful misadventure and brushes with death, more accurately reflects the tone of the album. The bulk of
Welcome 2 Club XIII was recorded live to tape in just three days during what was meant to be a demo session, and for a band that has largely been sidelined for the better part of two years, the
Drive-By Truckers sound tight and now, as always,
Brad Morgan's drumming is soulful and steady enough to carry them anywhere -- even the most downbeat songs crackle with a sense of purpose and focus that reminds us why they've been one of the most reliably strong American bands since the early 2000s. With the exception of the title track and
Mike Cooley's meditation on right-wing misinformation, "Maria's Awful Disclosures," the songs that truly define
Welcome 2 Club XIII are the final two, "Billy Ringo in the Dark" and "Wilder Days," both of which weigh the memories of past misadventures against the baggage the characters have to carry in the present day. Once again,
the Drive-By Truckers have made a strong album well worth your time and attention, but
Welcome 2 Club XIII suggests they're having a problem embracing uncomplicated joy in 2022 -- but then again, so do most people. ~ Mark Deming