Drive-By Truckers Perform NPR ‘Tiny Desk Concert’

Veteran rockers Drive-By Truckers last month issued the politically charged studio album American Band via ATO Records. Guitarists Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley recently led the outfit through three songs from the record in the latest installment of NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert video series.

Hood sings lead on the American Band tracks “Guns Of Umpqua” about a shooting at college in rural Oregon and “What It Means” about the shooting deaths of black men such as Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin. Prior to the start of “What It Means,” Hood told the audience at NPR, “I wrote this song a couple years ago. I’d honestly be really happy if it was just outdated and something we could leave in the past, but that’s certainly not the case right now.”

Cooley then takes lead on “Once They Banned Imagine” which he describes as being “about things staying the same, and not necessarily in a good way.” Watch DBT play the three songs from the album at NPR Music’s Bob Boilen’s office desk below: