Drive-By Truckers On World Cafe

Enlarge this image toggle caption Rich McKie/WXPN Rich McKie/WXPN

Set List "Ramon Casiano" "Guns Of Umpqua" "What It Means" "Once They Banned Imagine"

I'll bet that all of us can remember what we were doing and thinking on this past Election Day. The members of Drive-By Truckers were at World Cafe Live, performing and discussing their new album, American Band. The timing couldn't have been better — American Band may be the most political record of Drive-By Truckers' career, though the band has been writing songs about being from the South since its 2001 debut. (Principal songwriters Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley both come from Alabama.)

How did the two songwriters come to write the political songs that make up the bulk of the new album? "I didn't set out to write any of this stuff. It was kind of just what was eating at me," Hood says. Hear an interview with him and Cooley, plus a remarkable set from the Truckers, in this session. Check out a performance video of "What It Means" below.