Live From Austin, TX

The Drive-By Truckers have had a pretty remarkable decade, kicking off with the ambitious, career-making double album Southern Rock Opera in 2001 and capping with the gritty short-story collection Brighter Than Creation's Dark last year. The former introduced what would become the band's favorite topic-- "the duality of the Southern thing"-- and was so good it overcame the handicap of that awkward band name. The latter effective ly expanded their scope well beyond the South, writing about Iraq vets the way Springsteen wrote about Vietnam vets in the 80s. In between, they released two great albums and one good one, as well as two solo albums from Patterson Hood and an odds'n'sods collection slated for next month. Few bands have been both so prolific and so consistent this decade.