Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood has announced his first solo album in 12 years, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams, due February 21 via ATO (pre-order), and it features a lot of cool guests. Waxahatchee, Wednesday, and Lydia Loveless are all credited as featured artists on the tracklist, and the album also features contributions from Kevin Morby, Brad & Phil Cook, Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin, David Barbe, Stuart Bogie, Patterson’s DBT bandmates Brad Morgan & Jay Gonzalez, and more. The Decemberists’ Chris Funk produced the album, and The Decemberists’ Nate Query plays on it as well.
The first single is the Lydia Loveless duet “A Werewolf and a Girl,” which comes with a video directed by Kid Dynamite/None More Black’s Jason Shevchuk. Here’s what Patterson says about the song:
“A Werewolf and A Girl” was written in August of 2021, around 40 years after I fell for my high school sweetheart,” says Patterson Hood. “The song juxtaposed our falling in love and our breakup a year later. Once I cut the demo, I knew I wanted a woman to sing the choruses from the girl’s point of view. And in my head, it was always going to be Lydia. I mean, I didn’t really even have a second choice. The subject matter’s kind of provocative, so I wouldn’t have wanted to ask somebody that I didn’t feel was a friend. I wouldn’t want someone to be uncomfortable and then just not want to talk to me anymore. What I didn’t count on was that when I asked Lydia if she would be interested in doing it, she actually happened to be in the studio and did it the next day. And that’s what’s on the record.
Check out the song and video below.
Patterson and Lydia Loveless will also be touring together in the spring, beginning with a show at NYC’s Brooklyn Made on March 19. UPDATE: With Brooklyn Made closed for good, the NYC show has been moved to Mercury Lounge on 3/19.
All dates are listed below.
Meanwhile, Wednesday member MJ Lenderman just joined the Drive-By Truckers on stage during their encore when their tour swung through his hometown of Asheville. They covered Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” and The Jim Caroll Band’s “People Who Died,” and you can watch video of that below.
Tracklist
Exploding Trees
A Werewolf and a Girl (w/Lydia Loveless)
The Forks of Cypress (w/Waxahatchee)
Miss Coldiron’s Oldsmobile
The Pool House
The Van Pelt Parties (w/Wednesday)
Last Hope
At Safe Distance
Airplane Screams
Pinocchio
Patterson Hood — 2024/2025 Tour Dates
DECEMBER
3 – South Deerfield, MA – House Theater at Tree House Brewing Company
4 – Shirley, MA – The Bull Run
6 – Rocky Mount, VA – Harvester Performance Center
7 – Asheville, NC – Asheville Music Hall
8 – Winston-Salem, NC – The Ramkat
10 – New Orleans, LA – Chickie Wah Wah
12 – Fort Worth, TX – Tulips
13 – The Woodlands, TX – Dosey Doe
14 – Austin, TX – Antone’s
16 – Salt Lake City, UT – The State Room
18 – Portland, OR – Show Bar
19 – Portland, OR – Show Bar
20 – Portland, OR – Show Bar
MARCH
19 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Made †
21 – Sellersville, PA – Sellersville Theater †
22 – Washington, DC – The Atlantis †
26 – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West †
28 – Birmingham, AL – Saturn †
29 – Nashville, TN – Eastside Bowl †
30 – Indianapolis, IN – Hi-Fi †
APRIL
1 – Chicago, IL – Old Town School of Folk †
2 – Evanston, IL – SPACE †
4 – St. Louis, MO – Off Broadway †
5 – Louisville, KY – The Whirling Tiger
† w/ Special Guest Lydia Loveless