Overview

In 1996, Patterson Hood recruited friends and fellow musicians in Athens, Georgia, to form his dream band: a group with no set lineup that specialized in rowdy rock and roll. The Drive-By Truckers, as they named themselves, grew into one of the best and most consequential rock bands of the twenty-first century, a great live act whose songs deliver the truth and nuance rarely bestowed on Southerners, so often reduced to stereotypes. Where the Devil Don't Stay tells the band's unlikely story not chronologically but geographically. Seeing the Truckers' albums as roadmaps through a landscape that is half-real, half-imagined, their fellow Southerner Stephen Deusner travels to the places the band's members have lived in and written about. Tracking the band from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia, to the author's hometown in McNairy County, Tennessee, Deusner explores the Truckers' complex relationship to the South and the issues of class, race, history, and religion that run through their music. Drawing on new interviews with past and present band members, including Jason Isbell, Where the Devil Don't Stay is more than the story of a great American band; it's a reflection on the power of music and how it can frame and shape a larger culture.

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9781477318041

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Reviews

[An] excellent new book.-- Inside Hook (9/7/2021 12:00:00 AM) [An] inventive biography...Rather than a straight-ahead chronological bio, Deusner takes the reader right to the places in the South that played key roles in the band and it's development...[Fans] will appreciate Deusner's history of the band, especially the early years, and the background on many of their songs.-- Houston Press (8/27/2021 12:00:00 AM) Deusner explains how [Patterson] Hood and his main Trucker foil Mike Cooley have battled to redefine rock beyond the Mason-Dixon line over the course of three decades together...Deusner's lively narrative tracks the Drive-By Truckers' evolution, picking through wrecked marriages, redneck audiences and the band's role in the making of Jason Isbell to show how the Truckers overcame a hasty choice of band name to fly the flag for a more nuanced take on good Southern manners.-- Uncut (11/1/2021 12:00:00 AM) Deusner's must-read book follows the quintessential roots rockers as they travel through the South and the ethos that has helped define the band's musical identity and evolution within it. Deusner...tells a story with verve and wit, and drawing on new interviews with band members past and present, he brings to vivid life the powerful ways music can shape a landscape.-- No Depression (8/26/2021 12:00:00 AM) This is a book that you should read if you have any interest either in the Drive-By Truckers or in the current state of America.-- Americana UK (9/10/2021 12:00:00 AM) This may be the most interesting book about the South that I've read this year.-- Reckon South (9/29/2021 12:00:00 AM) It's about time somebody wrote a book about the Drive-By Truckers, and what a book it is...[Where the Devil Don't Stay is] a literary, thought-provoking analysis of the dynamics behind the band's artistry and its complicated relationship with the South.-- Atlanta Journal-Constitution (9/22/2021 12:00:00 AM)

Author Information

Stephen Deusner is a freelance music journalist whose work appears in Pitchfork, Uncut, Stereogum, No Depression, and the Bluegrass Situation, among other publications. He has contributed longform liner notes to recent reissues by Pylon and the Glands.

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