Drive-By Truckers

"I don't think of us as a Southern rock band," says Patterson Hood, the main axle of the Drive-By Truckers. Huh? Isn't this the band that made Southern Rock Opera, a two-CD album about Lynyrd Skynyrd? They boast three guitar players, just like Skynyrd. Hood even hails from 'Bama — and countless reviewers have certainly touted the group as the resurrection of Southern rock. "We're certainly Southern as hell, and the majority of our songs reflect that," Hood says. "And ten seconds on the phone with any of us, and our accents certainly reflect it." (It's true — he talks like he's about to hawk sweet tea at a moment's notice.) "But I don't really necessarily think it's really a relevant term for the music, if for nothing else than there's so much baggage with it that doesn't really apply."