Drive-By Truckers have shared a new lyric video for “Tough To Let Go,” a highlight from their second album of 2020, THE NEW OK. THE NEW OK is out now on CD and red vinyl via ATO Records.
Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood shares his thoughts on the track and video:
“‘Tough To Let Go’ literally came to me in a dream. Ironically, in my dream it was a Jason Isbell song. My wife and I were seeing him soundcheck in a great big arena and he and his band were working up this brand new song. I told my wife that his new song was great and sounded like a huge hit. Then I woke up and realized that it wasn’t anyone’s actual song, so I immediately wrote it.
I even sent Jason a copy of the recording with some other songs to get his feedback and he said it was his favorite of the bunch. He assured me that it was indeed my song though. We recorded it in Memphis at Sam Phillips Recording Service. To me the horns take it to the next level. I’m really proud of the video also.”
PURCHASE THE NEW OK (CD/VINYL)
This new video comes shortly after the release of the official music video for Drive-By Truckers’ fiery cover of The Ramones’ classic “The KKK Took My Baby Away,” featuring vocals by bassist Matt Patton. Watch the video HERE.
THE NEW OK was heralded earlier last fall by the powerful title track, accompanied by an intensely emotional official music video filmed entirely in Hood’s adopted hometown of Portland, OR, during the protests of summer 2020. “The New OK” is streaming now via YouTube — watch HERE.
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Praise for THE NEW OK:
“A nice surprise to guide us through these depressing times.”
– Stereogum
“Frontmen/singer/songwriters Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood along with longtime producer David Barbe craft these Southern-tinged, organically rocking songs with solid hooks and tough, sometimes tender melodies energized by the group’s typically muscular playing.”
– American Songwriter (4.5/5)
“Honest and irreplaceable…an album that serves as a manifesto of grief, righteous anger, frustration, and, in a way only the Truckers can spin, a bit of hope.”
– No Depression
“One of the greatest acts at chronicling our modern American struggle has done it again with the sudden release of THE NEW OK…The band grapple with things they and we as a society never thought we would, but having a band as plugged into the struggle
as DBT helps every step of the way towards a better world.”
– Glide Magazine
“THE NEW OK further cements my belief that Drive-By Truckers ought to be revered as one of the greatest bands in musical history…The fact that Drive-By Truckers have hit a purple patch this late in their career, so that THE NEW OK stands up as one their career highpoints, speaks volumes. Once again, a fabulous record.”
– God Is In The TV
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Drive-By Truckers’ 13th studio album, THE NEW OK arrived mere months after the release of the band’s acclaimed THE UNRAVELING, also available now via ATO Records. Originally conceived as a quarantine EP collecting material recorded in Memphis during sessions for THE UNRAVELING, the project quickly grew to include provocative new songs written and recorded over what Hood calls “this endless summer of protests, riots, political shenanigans, and pandemic horrors.” Tracks such as Hood’s “Watching The Orange Clouds” – inspired by the protests that followed George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police – were exchanged between Hood, co-founding singer/songwriter/guitarist Mike Cooley, Patton, keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Jay Gonzalez, and drummer Brad Morgan and then mixed by longtime DBT producer David Barbe. The result, says Hood, is “a full album that hopefully balances out the darkness of our current situation with a hope for better days and nights ahead.”
“To call these past few months trying would be a dramatic understatement,” says Hood. “Our lives are intertwined with our work in ways that give us our best songs and performances. It is a life that has often rewarded us beyond our wildest dreams. Speaking for myself, I don’t have hobbies; I have this thing I do. To be sidelined with a brand new album and have to sit idly while so much that I love and hold dear falls apart before my very eyes has been intense, heartbreaking, anger-provoking, and very depressing. It has gone to the very heart of our livelihoods and threatened near everything that we have spent our lives trying to build. Here’s to the hope that we can make 2021 a better year than this one has been. In the meantime, here’s to THE NEW OK!”
