Mar 15, 2018
Music has long been an important avenue for political discussion.
This episode features Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood of the
Drive-By Truckers, a Southern rock band whose music has tackled a
number of contentious political issues from class to race and even
partisan politics. Cooley and Hood co-founded the Drive-By Truckers
in 1996, and the band has produced nearly a dozen albums since. For
decades, their hard-driving sound has blended the classic sounds of
the South with literary skill and sonic power. Their latest album,
“American Band,” is perhaps their most explicitly political yet,
capturing the many tensions America faces in the age of Trump.
Cooley and Hood chat with Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang about
rock-and-roll, progressive politics and the dirty South in this
episode.