Mike Cooley

It was produced by David Barbee.

And our cast of characters, Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood on guitars and vocals, as always, Brad Morgan on drums, Jay Gonzalez on keyboards, guitars, and vocals, and Matt Patton on bass, and he's credited with vocals on this record as well, and I don't remember if he was on the, on the first two that he was on or not.

We're definitely gonna hear some Matt Patton singing, uh, discussed, I think, today in this episode.

Um, there is a, a, a photograph on the cover that is of Patterson Hood's two children at sunset on the coast of Oregon, so it is, uh, and the photograph was taken by Eric Goltz, G-O-L-T-Z.

That really stuck out at me the very first that I heard it.

It, it occurred to me that we've done the first two songs, and I kinda wanna go right into the third one.

But the third s- and those were two Hood songs, but the third song is, uh, Slow Ride Argument by Cooley, and I think this one moves very well i- in terms of the guitars and everything.

But, um, obviously, if you have a song called Slow Ride Argument, you are somehow referring to the song Slow Ride by Foghat.

No, I don't-

I don't think Isbell, I don't think Isbell has to worry about what Patterson and, uh, and what's the other guy? Mike, what's his name? Cooley? Is it Cooley?

Yeah.

Yeah, Mike Cooley.

I don't think he needs to worry about what Patterson Hood and Mike, Mike Cooley think anymore.

I think he's done pretty okay on his own now.

He has.

Now, I should qualify this a little bit, because this has been reported in various places.

Isbell did do a acoustic show with H- with Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley in, I believe, 2014, that was recorded, uh, for a live album that came out in 2020.

So the, he's reunited with, like, the main guys in Drive-By Truckers, but in terms of playing with the band and playing a rock show, this is the first time since he either left the band or was fired, depending on who you talk to, uh, in about 2006.

And they played Decoration Day, which for many people is the greatest dec- uh, uh, Drive-By Truckers record.

I mean, it, it was weird when Isbell left the band because, you know, a- as has been well documented, he was heavy into drinking and drugs at the time, and he was super young, too.

I mean, he was...

I think he was 22 when he joined the band, and he, uh, he's probably about 10 years younger than Patterson Hood and, and Mike Cooley.

So a little weird at the beginning, but then they reconciled, and they've been bros ever since, and they just haven't played together.

That was Drive by Truckers and Guns of Umqua.

Finally a track from the other truckers co-frontman Mike Cooley.

He wrote Surrender Under Protest as his response to the discussion on the significance of the rebel flag in 2016 and the differing opinions of what it represents.

The end of the first verse further elucidates the song's meaning.

It was produced by David Barbee.

Mike Cooley on guitar and vocals, Patterson Hood, guitar and vocals, Brad Morgans on drums, Jay Gonzalez, organ, piano, guitars.

He also does some lead guitars on this and he does vocals.

Cover art is by Wes Fried, but we also have a new band member and that's Matt Patton, who's on bass, because Shauna Tucker and John Neff left the band in December of, I want to say, 2013.

I found one interview where Patterson reflected that it was a, we just mentioned that, forgot how many years it was since their last album, but certainly many years since Sean Tucker and John Neff departed.

And Patterson reflects that it was a good time to take some time off.

Cooley in particular said that he went through a dry spell with songwriting and he had brought only a few songs to the big to-do go-go boots sessions.

But here he's breaking out all over.

Um, uh, again on new West and again, produced by David Barbie released on January 22nd, uh, 2008 West freed cover art.

And yes, we are without Jason Isbell at this point, but on this record, an old friend joins Mike Cooley, Patterson hood, uh, Brad Morgan and Shauna Tucker.

And John Neff is back in the band playing pedal steel and other guitars.

And Spooner Oldham is on keyboards all over this record.

One thing I'm going to drop in here before I forget.

This is in an interview with Patterson on the songwriting process.

Cooley has to be locked in a steam room and have them drawn out with sweat.

Shauna prefers dry heat.

And my name is Michael, pronouns he, him.

How are you doing, Max? I'm doing quite well, Mike.

And for the first time ever, we're in the same room.

Oh, really? I'm looking at you.

Wherever you are listening to this, which is many places at this point.

Spotify is another place.

Okay, so Mike, we are up in 2004 now, right? We are.

We did Decoration Day on our last episode.