Truckers Album & Chase

Drive-By Truckers

ATHENS, GA-July 27, 2007- Critically acclaimed Southern rockers Drive-By Truckers have returned to Athens this summer to cut their 8th studio album in Chase Park Transduction’s Studio A. Longtime Athens producer David Barbe will produce and engineer the highly anticipated release, which follows 2006’s massively successful A Blessing and a Curse and features contributions from legendary keyboardist Spooner Oldham (Aretha Franklin, Traffic). Recording began in early June on the thus-far untitled album, and the band hopes for a release date in early 2008 for New West Records. Barbe is also currently handling the responsibilities for DBT’s front-man Patterson Hood’s solo effort, Murdering Oscar and Other Love Songs, which features his legendary father, David Hood, and is in post-production stages.

The Truckers are far from the only band keeping Chase Park Transduction busy. In September of 2006, Barbe teamed with Athens legends R.E.M. to co-produce their cover of John Lennon’s “#9 Dream,” the lead single from Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur, released by Warner Bros. on June 12, 2007. Engineered at Chase Park, this was R.E.M.’s first recording with drummer Bill Berry since 1997. More recently, Barbe traveled to Muscle Shoals, Al., to co-produce The Scene of the Crime, an Anti-Records release from legendary soul singer Bettye LaVette featuring Drive-By Truckers as her backing band. Barbe was on location at Fame Studios for the recording before traveling back to Athens to mix the record at Chase Park Transduction.

David Barbe has been a fixture of the Athens, Ga., music scene since his arrival in 1981. Early credits include playing bass in a variety of bands, most notably local punk-rockers Mercyland and the internationally acclaimed group, Sugar. Under the guidance of fellow Athenian producer John Keane (R.E.M., Indigo Girls, Widespread Panic), Barbe began a career in recording that has included years of freelance work and the 1997 opening of Chase Park Transductions with co-owner Andy LeMaster. Past credits for Barbe include The Glands, Jerry Joseph, and Amy Ray.

LeMaster, a longtime indie-musician and recording engineer, continues to front his own Athens-based band, Now It’s Overhead, currently signed to Nebraska’s indie-sensation label, Saddle Creek Records. Between touring in support of their latest album, Dark Light Daybreak, LeMaster is currently involved in the production of the latest album from Summerbirds in the Cellar at Chase Park. LeMaster’s past projects are deep with ties to Azure Ray, Maria Taylor, and Connor Oberst’s Bright Eyes.

Recent projects at Chase Park Transduction include Barbe’s engineering and production work with Bloodkin and Starry Crowns and LeMaster’s mixing of a record for Art in Manila, the latest reincarnation of Orenda Fink (Azure Ray).