Well, let’s kick off the “summer of 1k posts” with this little ditty by the Stroker Ace himself. Now some of you may know about this, it was a limited edition 45 that was only released to indie record stores for this past Record Store Day. And if you don’t know what Record Store Day is, well it’s a day that bands who care about independent record stores push out exclusive items to those stores, and those stores only in hopes of driving up sales. Their are also typically a lot of in-store performances that go on that day (Check out DBT themselves performing at Harvest Records in Asheville, NC)
Well, anyway, this particular 45 is so far the closest thing we are going to get to the much desired Cooley solo album. The story I heard on this was that Cooley had laid down the vocals kind of impromptu on this track under the influence of some pretty good substances it sounds like. The band loved it but they weren’t going to release it. Cooley relented however and his love for indie record stores made him decide to release this as an exclusive. He even went so far as to pose for that silly cover!
Anyway, I get a kick out of this every time I hear it and thought you folks would too. Special thanks to Brit for picking this up for me! Keep pluckin….keep pluckin…..keep pluckin……
So, here we have the third main songwriter of the Drive By Truckers, and the only one who doesn’t have any kind of solo album. Listening to this makes you wonder why. Here Cooley is alone with his acoustic guitar playing whatever the crowd wants to hear. He runs through many Truckers’ favorites, old and new, and even a few unreleased tracks. A couple of the songs like “Little Pony and The Great Big Horse” and an alternate version of “Uncle Frank” can be heard on the excellent new odds and ends album The Fine Print (have I said that enough across these last three posts?). This is a real treasure, and getting almost all of Cooley’s songs together only cements the fact that he is an amazing songwriter and singer. My favorite tracks on here are of course the new ones I had never heard before, the drunk driving ballad “Three On The Tree”, “Pulaski Tennessee”, and my favorite unreleased one “Weakest Man”. Also of interest is an early version of “Bob”. The show ends with a killer one-two-three acoustic punch of “Marry Me”, “Where The Devil Don’t Stay” and “Daddy’s Cup”. Sound is a solid A-, not to be missed.
And a bonus for you Cooley fans, here is an interesting and insightful interview (because we rarely get to hear from the man) from when his song was featured in Rock Band. Check out this interesting quote: “I make more money off t-shirts. If you rip it, burn it, give it to somebody, and they come to a show and buy a ticket and a t-shirt, I profit more that way anyway, and then I’ve got a fan. Records are promotional items these days anyway”
Adam’s House Cat was Patterson Hood’s and Mike Cooley’s first band together, pre-DBT circa 1985-1991. This album as yet still unreleased was recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama in 1990. It features early versions of “Lookout Mountain” & “Nine Bullets” and a slew of other kickass songs. One of my favorites off this is “Runaway Train”. It nice to hear some early work of Patterson & Cooley….and this album is a nice glimpse of the genius work that was to come.
Adam’s House Cat was the VERY early incarnation of Drive-By Truckers which included current DBT members Patterson Hood, & Mike Cooley. They reunited for this show which was a benefit for Sabina Hartley-Burke and this is probably the only place to hear these songs unless you have one of the original demo tapes from back in ‘89. This is a nice little acoustic set which features Hood, Cooley, & DBT drummer Brad Morgan. Rumor has it that the as yet unreleased Adam’s House Cat album from 1990 may see the light of day this year. We can only hope. Until then if you are like me and crave more DBT this will have to tide you over. There are a couple of killer Patterson songs on here like “Troubled Waters”, “Runaway Train”, and “6 o’clock Train”. Also some equally killer Cooley songs like “Three on the Tree”, and a stripped down version of “Women Without Whiskey”. But the real prize here is the stories which give a great insight into the beginnings of Drive-By Truckers.
Disc One: 01) Intro 02) Cemeteries 03) Cancelling Dates 04) Troubled Waters 05) 6 O’Clock Train 06) Buttholeville 07) Three On The Tree 08) Elvis Presley Stole My Car 09) Picture Of Elvis Cured My Cancer 10) Uncle Frank 11) Runaway Train
Disc Two: 01) Child Abuse 02) Love Really Sucks 03) One Of These Days 04) Long Time Ago 05) Women Without Whiskey 06) Lookout Mountain 07) E:) Airplane Screams 08) Tornadoes 09) Shut Up And Get On The Plane
All right, this site is not about stealin' music, and it's not about stickin' it to the RIAA. It's about me wanting to get the music I love out there and heard. I've said it many times on here, and the fact that some of the talents I showcase on here are largely unknown is a crime. It's a shame what popular radio & music has become when there are so many great artists out there living in obscurity giving it everything they got.
Really folks, if you like what you hear, support the artists. Buy their albums, go to their shows, tell your friends, whatever you gotta do. Most of these are at crappy bitrates anyway.
