A Blessing And A Curse : Drive-By Truckers : Review : Rolling Stone

In the past decade, Drive-By Truckers have evolved from jokey Lynyrd Skynyrd heirs to ace songwriters chronicling Southern lives full of wrecked marriages, natural disasters and shitty jobs. The Truckers' seventh album isn't as detail-rich as 2004's The Dirty South, but it's another engaging variation on old-school Southern rock. Amid ragged riffs, light honky-tonk and elegant slow stuff, the Truckers turn in tuneful, finely wrought story-songs. "Aftermath USA" details a girlfriend's fuck-it-all rampage, with Patterson Hood yowling about maxed-out credit cards and crystal meth, and Jason Isbell's hard-driving "Easy on Yourself" is a portrait of life at a crossroads worthy of Crazy Horse at their darkest. And on the gorgeous closer, "A World of Hurt," Hood's protagonist decides not to blow his brains out and to embrace life's fleeting beauty, becoming another down-and-out character redeemed by grim determination and the Truckers' deep concern.