Patterson Hood Knows how the game is played. In the late 80's, the Muscle Shoals, Alabama native (and son of session bass player David Hood) was a member of Adam's House Cat, a band much-touted by music critics and courted by major labels. In the process of trying to get that elusive 'big contract' Hood's band fell apart.

Drive-By Truckers got together in 1996, but Hood and guitarist Mike Cooley go back almost 16 years. Rounded out by Drummer Matt Lane and bassist Rob Malone the bands been saddled with the alt-country tag, but Hood resists any attempt to define their sound so easily. In fact, that sort of resistance to conformity shows through in the band's unusual name. He has good justification too as musically they are hard to nail down, with elements of Country, Bluegrass, Southern Rock, Punk and R&B. The Truckers can rightly cite influences ranging from 'The Band' to 'Nirvana', via the porches of the Appalachians, hitting the key notes of Americana.

It is through the lyrics of the songs, most written by Patterson Hood that the 'Truckers' bluntness and honesty really shine through. Songs about bizarre familial bonds, dysfunctual love, drinking and social issues. Hood looks at the under belly of society and his own experiences of growing up in the South during the 70's. 'Box Of Spiders' describes Hood's 97 year - old grandma and her obsession with funerals, 'Too Much Sex and Too Little Jesus' was written after Hood stumbled upon a Sunday night religious phone in radio show and heard the preacher actually tell a young listener just that. 'Nine Bullets' is about a gun that fellow band member Mike Cooley's dad had left him when he died of cancer. Cooley, Hoods roommate at the time, always said that he'd keep one bullet in case he was ever diagnosed. The Gun was later hocked to keep the utilities on.

The characters in the 'Truckers' songs aren't mythical clichés, they are real and observed by Hood with the same ironic intimacy as writers such as Tom Waits, Randy Newman and Warren Zevon . Recording 'Pizza Deliverance' live in a friend's house in Athens Georgia with big rooms, hard wood floors and high ceilings, produced an immediacy and realism. What you hear is what you get at a Drive-By-Truckers gig.

The Drive-By-Truckers are on a mission - Pizza Deliverance might just save you.

"Fascinating outfit who appear capable of throwing off great songs that sound as if they’ve been composed on the backs of fag packets and hamburger wrapping..."
CLASSIC ROCK *****

"Pizza Deliverence is as implies hot and satisfying with a twisted hillbilly topping "
MOJO

"Guaranteed honest, real and cliché-free"
UNCUT