Drive-By Truckers are marking the upcoming 2024 presidential election with an expanded new edition of their landmark 2016 album, American Band, arriving via ATO Records on Friday, November 1. The deluxe 2xLP set will include seven live tracks (recorded at the band’s annual HeAthen’s Homecoming 2018 at Athens, GA’ historic 40 Watt Club), updated liner notes by Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood, additional photos, and exclusive new artwork, which sees the album’s powerful original cover by photographer Danny Clinch reinterpreted by longtime visual collaborator, the late Wes Freed. “Ramon Casiano (Live at 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA),” one of the seven unreleased live tracks, is streaming at all DSPs today.
“In case you haven’t noticed, American Band has been out of print for a minute and we’re happy to announce the release of American Band Deluxe on vinyl (and digital),” says Patterson Hood. “The deluxe edition includes an album of live versions of songs that we recorded at our annual DBT HeAthen’s Homecoming show at the fabulous 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia in 2018. By this point, the songs had taken on new lives and expanded in some beautiful ways that we hadn’t imagined when we first recorded them three years earlier. It includes a raucous live version of ‘Kinky Hypocrite’ (which was originally included as a studio version on a 45 as a part of the original release), a definitive version of ‘What It Means,’ and a rare live version of ‘Ever South’ that includes an extended intro featuring a part of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ masterpiece ‘Southern Accents.’ It truly Kicks Ass!”
