28. Drive by Truckers - 3 Dimes Down

If I had set out to make a list of the year's best single lines in a song there would be no question about the winner; "While chicken wing puke eats the candy apple red off his corvette" is undeniable poetry. Like the bar rockers the Hold Steady (their tourmates), the Drive-by Truckers have one trick: making classic rock for the here and now, and also like the Hold Steady, they do it really really well and with enough originality to keep you guessing. Adding to their charm, the DBT have the kind of sense of humor that convinces you that unlike 90% of the music world they do not take themselves too seriously.

That sense of humor is on full display on 3 Dimes Down as, according to a write-up by band member Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley references the Tom T. Hall opus Night in a Country Jail and Cooley, Hood, bassist Shonna Tucker, and drummer Brad Morgan create more classic rock gold that just happens to have been released in 2008.

The only thing that baffles me about this band and this song though is how they aren't more popular. They should be getting play on every mainstream rock radio station in America. All of those folks that obediently trot out to pick up the "new" Nickelback album (is there ever really new Nickelback?) should save themselves the heartache and pick up Decoration Day or Southern Rock Opera. I feel like this band should be exhibit A at any Payola trial as radio has tragically missed out on the pop gold that the Drive by Truckers produce more consistently than perhaps any other band out there.