Go-Go Boots

Got into DBT with Southern Rock Opera, and their next album (Decoration Day) was and is still my all time favorite DBT album. Dirty South was still magnificent, but after that I began to become less and less interested with each passing album. Brighter than Creation's Dark was one I initially liked, but it just didn't hold up with their best work, went on too long at times, and lacked any song that would be among their best work. Blessing and a Curse was just okay, but lost the feel of a true DBT album. In fact, I never even picked up the Big To Do, but heard it streaming a couple times and wasn't impressed. By then, I'd pretty much become turned off of the DBT anyway.I saw this album on the MSN listening booth, not even knowing it was about to be released. I listened to it streaming a couple times, then decided it was worth a purchase. I have to say, this album has all the trademarks of a classic DBT album. Shonna's songs are her strongest yet (I'm not always a fan of her songs, either), and it seems that Patterson Hood has returned to form. Somewhere after the Dirty South, he seemed to stumble, and even his solo album was pretty weak. Being the main singer/songwriter of the band, that will take its toll. I think Mike Cooley has remained brilliant, and this record is no exception. To me, this album regains the heart and soul of a DBT album.I'd say if you are (or were) a fan, give this a try. I also suggest this would be a fine album to get if you're new to the band. Not quite as dark or heavy as Decoration Day or Dirty South, but just as consistently great.

Gotta let this one sink in, folks. Let it percolate and spread to the far corners of your brain. If you're looking for the traditional rockers or fratboy knucklehead boozic, GGB is not the place to find them. C'mon, Cooley and Hood are in their mid-40's. You think it's interesting to them to churn out the same stuff album after album? No, these guys (and gal) explore a more smoky, dirty, soulful, slow-burning place in GGB.Used to Be a Cop, Ray's Automatic Weapon, and Go Go Boots are classic Hood character sketches, with interesting and timely details that can't help but connect you emotionally to the protagonists. And, as a very pleasant surprise, the opener (I Do Believe), middle anchor (Everybody Needs Love), and closer (Mercy Buckets) give the album an enduringly positive message - despite the normal cast of troubled folks that let us into their troubled worlds.Cooley brings the 60's/70's country on GGB, and if that's your style, you'll love his three contributions. Pulaski, one of his older tunes recorded for the new album, is particularly powerful. And Shonna's rendition of Where's Eddie? is surely her best vocal performance on record.For those who will always pine for Jason and his contributions, there are no Never Gonna Change(s) on GGB. But if you're as big a fan of Outfit or Decoration Day, then a good number of tunes on GGB will be right up your alley.Give GGB some time. It's a classic "grower" that will eventually reside in the top half of DBT's impressive catalog.

I am a huge DBTs fan. Upon first listenings to this album I was not very impressed. It is uneven and lacks a good flow. Tracks 1 and 2 are great and then "thud". I gave up on this album for quite some time, but I have given it much more serious consideration lately. Having read quite a bit about their break up with Jason Isbell certainly explains a bit about a certain song. The main point I want to make about this album is that there are eight great songs on it...all Patterson Hood's. He is one of my favorite songwriters of this generation. His songs on this album rank up with some of his best work. He reminds me more and more of the "William Faulkner" of rock these days. I love his solo album "Heat Lightning", and his songs on "Go Go Boots" have a great sound and are excellent stories. Take my advice and burn yourself a copy of this album that just includes tracks 1,2,5,6,7,9,10, and 12. You will then have a great album of southern gothic stories wrapped around the Truckers signature sound. There really is a great album here. You just have to look for it.

Only 4 stars because Amazon said buy new and it came used.. or at least opened and the gatefold falling apart... the wax is warped.. but the rest.. not so much... definitely not “new”. Returning

Not everyone has different opinions about certain DBT albums. Most people concur on which they think are the best, most people concur on which they think are all tied for second place. Some of the later DBT work, such as Go-Go Boots, more often than not falls in the second place category.But with a band this age, with a catalog of albums this big, after so long, trying to tell which is the best is really subjective.For me, it's not about catchy songs or some quality of musicianship or whatever other yard stick other folks are using. For me, it's about more stories. If you found out your favorite author, 50 years dead, wrote a novel that was heretofore not published and it was coming out next week, wouldn't you read it? If you like DBT, like I do, and you like their stories, like I do, you kind of cannot skip this album.Also, Cartoon Gold and Pulaski by Mike Cooley are great songs. They don't quite fit into Patterson Hood's narrative but rather they're like the scene setting chapters between the plot forwarding chapters, kind of how Steinbeck wrote.

My first copy was returned as both discs were very badly warped, and much thinner than most DBT pressings I own. Only mentioning the weight because my replacement was a totally different batch; heavy and flat 180gram records that sound fantastic. I just thought it interesting that the warped copy was immediately replaced with a copy from a different plant carrying a different matrix runout.If you're curious, the side-A matrix runout of the good copy is ATO 0093 88088-21721-1A RJ SHE WAS ALL PROVOCATIVE

Patterson Hood advertised DBT's previous release, The Big To-Do, as their hardest rocking. In contrast, Go-Go Boots heads in the opposite direction, being much quieter and combining a return to the more country-flavoured tunes of Brighter Than Creation's Dark with a taste of the soul music they were making with Bettye LaVette.As ever it's Cooley who has the best lines, as in Cartoon Gold: "I'm not good with numbers/ I just count on knowing when I'm high enough." Cooley's tunes overall give the impression he's tugging in the country direction, and the themes also tend that way: Pulaski, about a Tennessee country girl drawn to the bright lights of California and finding reality doesn't measure up to what she's seen on TV, and The Weakest Man, about not wanting to be victim to a femme fatale.But if Cooley gets the songs, Hood gets the best tunes, especially Used To Be A Cop, with its amazing musical links between verses and its vague echo of Neil Young's Crime In The City, and the highly affective The Thanksgiving Filter, where the music perfectly complements the account of a dysfunctional family, and is the only place where Brad Morgan gets to release those stinging cymbals of his. In the title track and The Fireplace Poker Patterson returns to the Dirty Vicars theme of The Wig He Made Her Wear, except this time the holy men get their retaliation in first, hiring thugs to do their wives in and, in one case, brutally finishing the job the hired help couldn't complete themselves. On that occasion the comeuppance is swift, with the cops accepting natural justice. And the song which the car's music player at one point demurely called "Track 7" seems to be Hood venting about record company execs, band managers or similar. He could sell it to The Clash.Not to be completely outdone lyrically, Shonna Tucker manages the only rock'n'roll reference I know of to diabetes on Dancin' Ricky, and also makes a good job of one of the two Eddie Hinton covers on the record, Where's Eddie?, re-establishing her soul credentials first applied for on The Big To-Do. Fortunately, on the record she's properly mic'd up so you can hear what she's singing, unlike when she sang this at the Shepherd's Bush Empire last October!Hood too covers a Hinton song, Everybody Needs Love, with feeling, but probably the most soulful song, Mercy Buckets, is reserved for the end. If they'd asked me, this would have been the Valentine's Day download, not the Hinton song.The overwhelming feeling from the album is of a band going from strength to strength, broadening and deepening its repertoire and capabilities with class and panache. As ever, the atmosphere is enhanced by the country-infused slide and dobro of John Neff, and Jay Gonzalez really has tapped the Muscle Shoals spirit. And whilst missing his stinging cymbals, Morgan lays down a solid beat, giving the vital finishing touches to some songs, not least Pulaski.Finally, the sleeve. Wes Freed. Priceless.

As other reviewers have said this was recorded alongside last year's "The Big To Do" and as they have also said this is the better of the two. I have read it described as the DBT's "Exile on Main Street" and there is a country soul feel about the album. Go-Go Boots is less raucous and has more of a groove than most other DBT records and there are far more acoustic instruments here than is normal for a Truckers album. As always the songs, at least the originals, are stories from small town America about the post traumatic stress and nightmares of a Vietnam veteran (Ray's Automatic Weapon), a hypocritical, adulterous, murdering preacher (Fireplace Poker and Go-go Boots), a burnt out police officer (I Used To Be A Cop) or a country girl moving to sunny California (Pulaski). There are two covers of Eddie Hinton songs in Everybody Needs Love and Where's Eddie, the latter sung by bassist Shonna Tucker is a highlight.This is their best album since the great trilogy of Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day and The Dirty South. It doesn't quite reach the stellar standards of those albums and is a lot less varied in feel. I would certainly have no hesitation in recommending people to purchase this and also to go and see the Drive-By Truckers live, they are a superb live band and they are playing in the UK this Spring. Go Truckers!

Bought this album (and all the others) for myself some years ago having discovered DBTs on Dimeadozen live music bittorrent site. For me, DBTs are the best band around currently. The band is overflowing with talent, three of the band members on this album are songwriters and lead singers in their own right and take turns as lead singer of their own compositions while the rest of the band support. This is like having four different bands under the same name and yet they keep a consistency. Some songs are dark, some deep, some entertaining, some sad, Many are inciteful. If you like your rock creative, intelligent, relentless and with a Southern accent then you'll love this.This CD was bought as a present for my son who loves it too. Like he says, if you don't like DBTs, you don't like music.

I love this band and so I may be a bit biased but this is a cracker. Plenty of new sounds and variety. A treat.

This is a fabulous album. Lots of good tracks and a variety of different styles, well worth purchasing.