Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood has been talking up the band’s latest release, Go Go Boots, as an R&B murder album. Well, the murder is there; the R&B is a bit harder to discern. No matter. Just be glad that the alt-country rockers have offered up another heaping helping of Southern Gothic so close on the heels of last year’s excellent The Big To-Do.

Hood compared his songwriting style in a recent interview to that of Randy Newman. No, not the Disney Randy Newman, but the acidic songwriting genius of the '70s and '80s who dared to write in the guise of rednecks, slave traders and other elements of society not usually considered worth immortalizing in song.

The difference is that Newman often wrote from the perspective of an outsider trying to get inside his characters’ heads. Hood easily identifies with his downtrodden antiheroes, often even daring to show empathy towards them. He realizes that circumstances and environment have much to do with the plight of these folks. Add in a healthy dose of human frailty and you’ve got some characters that transcend the booze and guns stereotype the band’s name might conjure.

On the whole, Go Go Boots is a bit less raucous than its predecessor; the guitars of Hood, Mike Cooley, and John Neff tend to be used more for commentary on the proceedings rather than as the musical driving force. That allows the songwriting to take a major spotlight here, which, considering the talent that DBT has to offer in that department, can’t be a bad thing.

After all, in addition to Hood, Cooley and Shonna Tucker have both excelled many times over when they take the lead. Cooley’s three songs here definitely are the most out-and-out country offerings on the album, with a musical sound indebted to Johnny Cash and a world-weary lyrical bent that’s reminiscent of Kris Kristofferson. Tucker shines on two soulful songs, “Dancin’ Ricky” and “Where’s Eddie”, proving once again that be she’s a compelling performer.

As for Hood, he wisely adds a little diversity to his approach here and there to leaven the harsher stuff. Album-opener “I Do Believe” is chirping 1960s rock; “Everybody Needs Love” gives him the chance to play Soul Man; and closer “Mercy Buckets,” a ballad with some crunch, owes a debt to the Stones. Those songs are just palette-cleansers for the character sketches he does so well.

Take this couplet from the detailed slice-of-life “Thanksgiving Filter”: “My Aunt’s praisin’ Palin/My niece loves Obama/My Uncle came to dinner/Wearing his pajamas.” Really says all you need to know about that clan, doesn’t it? Meanwhile, “Used To Be A Cop” is an intricate portrait of someone whose temper cost him everything that ever mattered and now threatens anyone in his path.

Hood’s preponderance for long, convoluted story songs is indulged here. Some may find the title track and “The Fireplace Poker,” which tell a similar tale of adultery and murder and might as well be Parts 1 and 2, to be clever, but the Truckers trod a similar path with “The Wig He Made Her Wear” from The Big To-Do. As a result, these songs, while well done, feel overly familiar.

I prefer “Ray’s Automatic Weapon,” which leaves out as much as it puts in, allowing Hood to subtly suggest the psychological torment of his protagonist: “The night’s ain’t getting shorter/Only my patience and checkbook and fuse.” The tension ratcheted up by the band is near unbearable, and there isn’t much of a release.

As a matter of fact, tension seems to be at the heart of the band’s efforts this time around. Go Go Boots is lacking the kind of sweeping choruses that might blow some of that tension away, which might make it less accessible but certainly renders it more honest to the collective plight Hood’s motley crew of characters. That tradeoff is more than acceptable. After all, lots of bands can muster power, but few can pull off the profundity like Drive-By Truckers manage here.

SAMPLE "GO-GO BOOTS"

"Dancin' Ricky"

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"Mercy Buckets"

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"Ray's Automatic Weapon"

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