Drive-By Truckers on are the move this summer. They’ve just announced a North American tour in support of the newly released English Ocean and fans will get the chance to hear songs from the band’s twelfth studio album. The entire album save for one track was recorded over the course of thirteen days last summer. Fans of DBT are already very familiar with the political threads that bind many of the band’s lyrics. One song on the album, “Made Up English Oceans,” hits this note again. DBT co-founder Mike Cooley said the song’s lyrics are sourced from his own curiosity about Lee Atwater, who was a Republican operative during the 1980s campaigns of Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Cooley says, “He was the guy that Karl Rove and all of the modern dirty tricksters looked to – he was one of the granddaddies of it all.” Along the way, Drive-By Truckers will be joined by Water Liars, Willie Nelson, Shovels & Rope, and others.
Just coming from a European jaunt, the band’s tour will kick off in California with stops in Napa at City Winery and Berkeley at the Greek Theatre on April 11. The tour pretty extensively covers North America from there with stops in Portland, OR; Orlando, FL; Asbury Park, NJ; Toronto and Ottawa, and will end in Cincinnati at the Buckle Up Music Festival.
