Drive-By Truckers; Welcome 2 Club XIII LP

Welcome 2 Club XIII (the 14th DBT studio album) marks a sharp departure from the trenchant commentary of The Unraveling and The New OK (both released in 2020). The title track pays homage to the Muscle Shoals honky-tonk where founding members Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley got their start: a concrete-floored dive lit like a disco with the nightly promise of penny beer. Much of the album serves as a free-flowing coming-of-age memoir with Hood singing at one point: "Our glory days did kinda suck." The Driver Maria's Awful Disclosure Shake and Pine We Will Never Wake You Up in the Morning Welcome 2 Club XIII 03:22 Forged in Hell and Heaven Sent Every Single Storied Flameout Billy Ringo in the Dark Wilder Days