Zack: I was mildly interested in listening to this up
until the time I saw it was a double album. Country and Southern rock have been
so hit-or-miss for us that I was terrified of investing more than 90 minutes
into something I might come to loathe. I pushed it back a few days. Finally, I
figured, I was going to have to listen to it eventually and I might as well try
and enjoy it. I’m glad I made it a point to go in with an open mind, because
this album is a really impressive feat of musical ingenuity. Southern Rock
Opera is, as the name suggests, a southern rock (with some alternative country
and even a dash of cowpunk here or there)-styled rock opera that aims to
deconstruct the Deep South mythology. If it wasn’t for the three-guitar based
assault that’s constantly whirring about, it would practically be academic.
Drive-By Truckers have no interest in glorifying the South and its
larger-than-life figures, a la Lynyrd Skynyrd, or even condemning its – ahem –
checkered past like Neil Young famously does in Southern Man and (the fabulous
track from Harvest) Alabama – a well-known dispute touched upon on SRO in the
second track, Ronnie and Neil. Instead, they want to focus on the grey that
lies between those two extremes. Or, as it’s put in a few songs, breaking down
“the duality of the ‘Southern Thing.’” And when their attention is clearly
devoted to that goal, SRO is magical. I think things tend to get a bit hazy
when they jump into the secondary theme of exploring things from Skynyrd’s
point of view, and the insistence on doing so adds quite a few unnecessary
tracks, especially on the album’s shaky back end. But when Drive-By Truckers
are trucking along in their investigation of southern dichotomy, they take both
the southern rock and alternative country genres to a level of intelligence and
sophistication I haven’t seen elsewhere.
Favorite Tracks: Birmingham; Wallace; The Southern Thing
Emily: True to its name, Southern Rock Opera tells quite an operatic story of the South. By personifying the different experiences and elements of the "Southern thing" through icons such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, George Wallace, and Neil Young as well as other unnamed Southerners and members of the Drive-By Truckers themselves, Southern Rock Opera creates a nuanced image of the South in the 1970s and beyond. The first half of the album is especially successful. Southern rock and country provide a backdrop to the story, which could effectively work as a staged musical. Well, maybe not one with a cohesive story, but perhaps a series of vignettes that all tie together as elements of the band's Southern thing. This idea really came to mind while hearing The Three Great Alabama Icons. The rock of this song is more subdued to make way for a spoken-word story of the narrator, a young Southerner, and his interpretation of the great looming figures of his home state - Ronnie van Zant (of Lynyrd Skynyrd), Bear Bryant (Alabama's head football coach in a football-loving state), and George Wallace (the infamous Alabama governor who became the face against the civil rights movement in the '60s). The storytelling was so vivid that I could envision the scenes being acted out as the narrator spoke, and it continued into the next song, Wallace, which describes George Wallace's entrance into hell - from the perspective of the devil. Unfortunately, the second half of this double album wasn't nearly as unique or successful. But the first half? It presents the South in music from an original, honest, and realistic perspective, a perspective that seems to be lacking in most other country and Southern rock music.
Favorite Tracks: The Three Great Alabama Icons; The Southern Thing; Birmingham
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