Drive-By Truckers new music more political

The Drive-By Truckers return to Macon on Thursday for a concert at the Cox Capitol Theatre.

The band is touring in support of its new album, “American Band,” which was released Sept. 30 and is their “most explicitly political album … employing realism rather than subtext or symbolism to purge its makers’ own anger, discontent, and frustration with societal disintegration,” according to a news release.

“I don’t want there to be any doubt as to which side of this discussion we fall on,” co-founder Patterson Hood said in the release. “I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding of where we stand. If you don’t like it, you can leave. It’s OK. We’re not trying to be everybody’s favorite band, we’re going to be who we are and do what we do and anyone who’s with us, we’d love to have them join in.”

The album includes the songs “What It Means,” “Kinky Hypocrites,” “Guns of Umpqua,” “Ramon Casiano” and “Baggage,” all written in response to current political issues.

“I’ve always considered our band to be political,” Hood said. “I’ve studied and followed politics since I was a small kid. I got in trouble in third grade for a paper I wrote about Watergate — the teacher sent a note home to my parents saying I was voicing opinions about our president that she didn’t appreciate. That’s the one time I got in trouble at school where my parents sided with me.”

Kyle Craft will open the show.

This story was originally published November 10, 2016 at 12:25 PM with the headline "Drive-By Truckers new music more political."