Drive By Truckers 2014 David McClister.jpg

The Drive-By Truckers, from left: Jay Gonzalez, Patterson Hood, Matt Patton, Mike Cooley, Brad Morgan. (David McClister photo courtesy of Drive-By Truckers)

(David McClister)

Looking ahead to The Drive-By Truckers' Saturday set at the 2015 Hangout Music Fest, Patterson Hood has some words sure to warm the hearts of his band's fans: "This will be our first show back playing big and loud and electric again."

The Truckers released their most recent studio album, "English Oceans," a little over a year ago, and took it on the road in the accustomed fashion. But in April they took a detour: Hood and co-founder Mike Cooley, and the rest of the group, did a string of dates with a sit-down, mostly acoustic format. It was a chance to spade up the soil - to dig up old songs, to turn over some new ones, to polish their musicianship in a setting where nuances carried weight.

They're plugging in again for Hangout, but it's not like they're putting the experience behind them.

"We're pretty ready, I think," said Hood. "One of the cool things about doing that kind of tour we just did, I think it really sharpens us as a band. I think we'll probably be extra-on because it was such a challenging thing that we just finished doing. Putting us back in our comfort zone and all of that, with all of the extra chops ... should make for a good show."

It has been a long haul for the Truckers, a defiantly scruffy rock outfit with beginnings going back to the mid-'90s and roots in northwest Alabama, and with a legacy of bristling Southern storytelling that took on epic proportions with the double album "Southern Rock Opera." But they've been to the beach before - the group appeared at the 2011 Hangout Fest - and Hood says they're eager to return. (The band plays at 6:30 p.m. Saturday on the Hangout Stage, ahead of the headlining Zac Brown Band.)

"We're excited about it," Hood said. "This will be our first festival show of the season, and one of the few we're doing this year ... It ought to make for a really good time."

What's in the mix? Well, just about everything.

"We'll be pulling stuff out of the whole catalog. And we just finished mixing a live record that's going to come out this fall, and it pretty much spans our whole history," Hood said. "We've probably got more songs working right now in the circulation than we've ever had in the history of our band. We worked up so many older songs getting ready for the live record, plus we're still working songs from 'English Oceans,' plus we pulled out songs we hadn't played in years for this acoustic tour. We're kind of in a unique spot in our history, right now."

"We don't ever do a set list," he said of himself and Cooley. "We never really know what's going to happen. We spend about half the show trying to stump each other ... It's not easy at this point. We're both pretty hard to stump, as is our band. They're pretty used to our shenanigans."

Hood said that he and Cooley have been working steadily on new material, and already have more than an album's worth - but he doesn't know when they'll get around to recording it, because the next release will that live album, recorded late last year at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

Hood said he's really hoping that set will be released in time for the Truckers' fall tour, which includes dates opening for the Alabama Shakes. But there's a snag: "It takes so long to get vinyl manufactured now, because there's so few vinyl plants left from the heyday, yet there's such a huge resurgence in it," he said. "It's kind of a bottleneck in that part of the process."

As for his fellow Alabamians in the Shakes, he said, "We're all just beyond proud of them and what they've done, and this incredible record they just made. And we're thrilled they're taking us out with them for some dates. It's going to be really fun."

"It's a really good time for this band," he said.

"We're thrilled that people still want to come see us," he said. "We've had this thing going a long time. Not many bands last this long. To still kind of be growing, even, after all this time, is a pretty amazing thing, and we definitely don't take it for granted. At the same time, we work really hard at it. We work as hard as a young band. We're still chasing that song, that next song."