PATTERSON HOOD – MURDERING OSCAR (AND OTHER LOVE SONGS)

The Drive-By Truckers have been a busy bunch of late. Releasing their own album, backing Booker T Jones (along with Neil Young) on his return, and now (as if had a few spare moments) their main-man Patterson Hood releases his second solo album. While the voice is the same, the guitars still crunch, and the bass still rumbles -what distinguishes this album from a DBT’s recording is that the material Hood has kept for himself has a decided twist to it. From the title track about a morally flexible hit-man to the post 9/11 Pride of the Yankees, the lean to left-field is evident and it manages to pick this album up above it’s more traditional blue-eyed soul vocals and rock’n’blues roots. With Papa Hood on bass (dad is longtime bassist with the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section) and a rock solid band taking his back, Patterson Hood has managed to take the platform laid by the DBT and expand upon it. Murdering Oscar is Patterson Hood taking a more intimate, darker, but compassionate look at those around him; and all the better for it.

*** 1/2