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New music from Courtney Barnett.

Drive-By Truckers at Pine Hill Farm 10.6.01

 

Listening to this previously unreleased live acoustic version of “Sink Hole” from the upcoming expanded edition of Decoration Day (The Definitive Decoration Day, due November 14 on New West) immediately put me in mind of the first of two mostly acoustic house shows Drive-By Truckers did at Pine Hill Farm in Durham, NC nearly a quarter century ago this month. This show was among the last they did with Rob Malone. I’d just seen them the night before at Firebelly Lounge in Wilmington. By the time they returned to Firebelly in early December they had a new guitarist in tow, Jason Isbell. 

The following year they returned to Pine Hill Farm. It was no less enjoyable than the first show but had an entirely different vibe. The first show was held inside with everyone jammed in front of the fireplace. It had a far more intimate feel. It was also in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, which gave new meaning to songs from Southern Rock Opera, especially “Angels and Fuselage” and lines like, “Livin’ in fear’s just another way of dyin’ before your time” from Cooley’s “Shut Up and Get On the Plane.” 

While there were somber moments like the late Jyl Freed singing backup on and being moved to tears by “Angels and Fuselage,” there were also moments of jubilation such as the crowd singing along to the set closing cover of Wet Willie’s “Keep On Smilin’” and gut busting laughter thanks to the one liners of drummer Brad Morgan, who you usually never hear a peep out of during a regular show. 

The more casual atmosphere also afforded Patterson Hood more of an opportunity to preface the songs with his unique brand of storytelling.  It was an epic show in every sense of the word, never to be repeated. Their return engagement in early summer of 2002 with Isbell roughly a year before the release of Decoration Day (his first album with the band), had its moments but lacked the magic of the first. Years later, following Isbell’s departure from the band, these shows would serve as inspiration for the largely acoustic Dirt Underneath tour where they broke in songs that would become their next record, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark.

Circling back to “Sink Hole,” it was also at this first house show at Pine Hill Farm where Patterson tipped many of us off to The Accountant, a dark comedy starring Ray McKinnon about “saving the family by any means necessary,” that had inspired the song. The next year, it went on to win Best Live Action Short Film at the Oscars.

Below are some brief snippets from footage Craig Zearfoss shot at the first Pine Hill Farm show, the setlist, and other pertinent links. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to locate an audio recording of the show to link to, though a recording does exist. Video can be obtained from the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC in Chapel Hill. In closing, I’m thankful to see an entire recording of one of the Truckers mostly acoustic shows finally see an official release.

Kurt Heggland, né Hickey introducing the Truckers

 

“Heathens” (snippet)

“Sink Hole” (snippet)

Drive-By Truckers at Pine Hill Farm in Durham, NC 10.6.01

1. Heathens
2. The Boys From Alabama
3. Marry Me
4. Goode's Field Road
5. Panties In Your Purse
6. The Tough Sell
7. The Company I Keep
8. Stupid Song
9. My Sweet Annette
10. Old Timer's Disease
11. One Of These Days
12. Sink Hole
13. Mizen Was American
14. Tornadoes
15. Daddy's Cup
16. Days of Graduation
17. Ronnie and Neil
18. 72 (This Highway's Mean)
19. Dead, Drunk, and Naked
20. Guitar Man Upstairs
21. Cassie's Brother
22. The Southern Thing
23. Women Without Whiskey
24. Zip City
25. Let There Be Rock
26. Shut Up and Get On The Plane
27. Greenville To Baton Rouge
28. Bulldozers and Dirt
29. Angels and Fuselage
30. Keep On Smilin' (Wet Willie)

Links

Craig Zearfoss Collection, 1988-2008

Drive-By Truckers at Pine Hill Farm, 6.29.02

U2 Released Rattle and Hum on This Day in 1988

 

Print advertisement for Rattle and Hum, released 0ctober 10, 1988.

U2 released Rattle and Hum on this day in 1988. This, and R.E.M.’s Green (released the following month on Election Day) were my last new vinyl purchases at the time. Rattle and Hum marked the end of an era for U2 and Green, R.E.M.’s major label debut on Warner Brothers, marked the beginning of a new one for them.

R.E.M.’s Green on CD housed in a longbox. Released November 8, 1988 in the US.

That year for Christmas I received a CD player along with my first CDs: Green and The Best of the New Riders of the Purple Sage. I had held out for as long as I could before making the transition to CDs. At this time, vinyl was being phased out, seemingly for good. Who knew it would someday make a return. In this digital age where streaming reigns supreme it all seems so quaint, especially thinking back on CD longboxes.

R.E.M. at the Pier, 10.10.82

From this day in 1982 at the Pier in the Cameron Village Subway located beneath Cameron Village Shopping Center in Raleigh, NC. At this time R.E.M. were not even a blip on my radar but here they are playing one of many early shows practically in my backyard. They first came to my attention the following spring when I heard “Laughing” from their full length debut album, Murmur on WQDR, an album rock station out of Raleigh. The rest as they say is history…

Waxahatchee on KEXP

Waxahatchee performing at the AJ Fletcher Opera Theatre during the Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, NC on September 7, 2018.

I’m not sure exactly when Waxahatchee first appeared on my radar but I do know my interest was piqued enough to catch her during Hopscotch in 2018. At the time she had just released her Great Thunder EP. While I certainly enjoyed her set, I mainly picked up her EP on the strength of it being produced by Brad Cook. Even so, I was not overly taken with it.

Poster for the private, invitation only show at the Pinhook in Durham. NC on January 3, 2023 where Waxahatchee debuted songs from the album that would become Tigers Blood.

Fast forward to 2022 and I was all in with the Plains album she made with Jess Williamson. On the recommendation of a friend, I backtracked to her St. Cloud album which I also enjoyed. 

In early 2023 I received a text from a friend alerting me to an upcoming private, invitation only show at the Pinhook in Durham where she would be debuting a set of new songs backed by a stellar lineup of mostly local musicians. Thankfully, I didn’t sleep on that and purchased a ticket the next day. These songs are the ones that would become Tigers Blood, which came out the following year.

The next time Waxahatchee came to the area she played the DPAC, a considerably larger venue just a few blocks away from the Pinhook. It’s almost the same story for MJ Lenderman, who plays on the record and was a member of her band that night at the Pinhook. In early 2025 he played two sold out shows at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro. By this summer he also found himself headlining the DPAC.

In a musical landscape where so many of my favorite artists fly just beneath the radar I find it remarkable when they’re somehow able to achieve that next level of success that eludes so many.

Back in August Waxahatchee stopped by KEXP’s studios in Seattle, WA to record her fifth live performance for the station. It debuted on YouTube just a few days ago.