IN 1996, PATTERSON Hood and Mike Cooley co-founded Drive-By Truckers, an alternative-country rock band based in Athens, Ga., that has always celebrated speaking truth to power while making unforgettable music. Over the years, Hood and Cooley have remained the chief songwriters in the band, and one thing has been constant since day one: They speak their minds. That has never been truer than on their latest record, The Unraveling.
“It’s a heavy record, it’s really heavy,” says Hood. “It was painful to write.”
Much of that heaviness revolves around Hood and Cooley plunging themselves into the hypocrisy of the evangelical movement that has come to a vivid crescendo since the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
“I’m not going to put up any pretense that I’m religious, but there’s a lot of Christianity in my background,” Hood admits. “I have very, very close family members who, until fairly recently, considered themselves part of the Christian Right.” He watched as those family members experienced a political turnaround, partly due to how they saw politicians co-opting their faith in ways that went against their interpretation of the teachings of Jesus.
“They’re particularly offended by the whole ‘thoughts and prayers’ thing being bandied about as an excuse to do nothing, as an excuse for inaction,” he says. Because of that, he put pen to paper and wrote the aptly titled “Thoughts and Prayers,” a hauntingly beautiful song that forces listeners to confront the senseless gun violence for which America has become known.
“They’re counting up the casualties, everyone’s choosing sides,” he sings, “there’s always someone to blame, never anywhere to hide / Thoughts and prayers / Thoughts and prayers.”
Though it may seem like Hood is making light of faith, he’s actually standing up for what many around him believe. “I’m not belittling anything that gives anybody some modicum of hope and happiness and comfort in this crazy world,” he says. “Whether it’s going to church or going to a rock show or reading a book or holding your children, anything that makes this mean world seem a little less mean is to be celebrated and treasured. So, when people use that, use religion, as an excuse to not do anything, yeah, I’m offended by that.”
That sense of indignation propels the album into several other realities the country faces today.
“If you use religion as an excuse to say it’s okay that children ... are ripped from their parents’ arms, I’m offended by that,” he goes on, giving a nod to another track on The Unraveling, “Babies in Cages.”
The indignation covering the Truckers’ new record is centered on Donald Trump, both what he says and how his words influence millions. “The fact that he has somehow gotten so much support from [evangelicals]—well, if I were a devout Christian, I would be devoutly offended by that.”
Despite his own beliefs, Hood has remained close with a cousin who is deeply committed to Christianity. “His journey is beautiful and inspirational,” he says. “He used to come at politics from a very opposite angle from me. I don’t think he’d call himself a Democrat now, but he also can’t support what’s happening in the Republican Party. He went through a crisis of faith that culminated with him realizing he was disillusioned with what was being done in the name of faith.”
As he’s talked more with his cousin, Hood has been encouraged to check out writers and pastors such as Brian Zahnd who, like Hood, are not afraid to speak their minds in favor of standing up for what they believe to be right. “I’m not trying to pawn myself off as something I’m not,” Hood says, “but much of my morality comes from things I learned growing up among deeply Christian people.”
The Unraveling may be a heavy record, but Hood recognizes that a semblance of hope lies embedded in the truths about which he and Cooley sing. This may be clearest on the album’s closing track, “Awaiting Resurrection,” as Hood sings, “I try with all my might to seek the truth you’ve been rejecting / Seeking some salvation to the limits of my talents / I hold my family close tryin’ to find the balance / Between the bad shit goin’ down and the beauty that this life can keep injecting.”
Though it may seem like hope is hard to find in lyrics like that, Hood sees this particular song as a call to action of sorts for listeners—and all Americans—to not only deal with the reality of what’s happening in the country, but to survive. Hood closes the song with the unforgettable lyrics, “Guns and ammunition / Babies in a cage / They say nothing can be done, but they tell us how they prayed / In the end we’re just standin’ / Watchin’ Greatness fade into darkness / Awaiting resurrection.”
May more people join this call to survive as we, along with Drive-By Truckers, await resurrection.
Chuck Armstrong is a church planter and writer in New York City. From a town of about 150 people in northeast Kansas, he now lives in Hell’s Kitchen with his family.
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