Drive-by Truckers: The Fine Print

Artist: Drive-by Truckers
Album: The Fine Print (A Collection of Oddities and Rarities 2003-2008)
Label: New West
MySpace Page: Drive-by Truckers
Order: http://drivebytruckers.shop.musictoday.com/Dept.aspx?cp=407_2853

Let’s face it. Unless you are a die hard fan, most b-side albums suck. But then again, the Drive-by Truckers aren’t most bands. This is a collection of b-sides that you could present to someone who had never heard DBT and there is a good chance you might convert them.

The Fine Print opens with “George Jones Talkin’ Cell Phone Blues,” a somewhat sarcastic, yet at the same time tender, warning to George Jones to put down the damned cell phone before he is “singing duets with Tammy again”. There is also a tighter version of the previously released "Uncle Frank". However the highlight of the The Fine Print is the rocked out version of Warren Xevon’s “Play it All Night Long” which features the DBT’s three guitar attack explode while they “throw their guitar against the wall”.

In between you hear several oddities including what it must be like to be a great big horse with a little pony, a look at the effects of the Tennessee Valley Authority through the modern eyes of Jason Isbell, a nice attempt at a cover of Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”, and another Isbell song, which makes you wonder how personal it was, in “When the Well Runs Dry.”

For a B-side, this is a masterpiece.

Rating: 87/100