Today, a couple of generations of great Alabama-born indie rockers team up on a new song. Right now, the Drive-By Truckers are playing their 2001 classic Southern Rock Opera in full on tour, and co-leader Patterson Hood is getting ready to release Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams, his first solo album in 13 years. The record has contributions from people like Wednesday, Kevin Morby, Lydia Loveless, and Megafaun's Brad and Phil Cook. We've already posted the early singles "A Werewolf And A Girl" and "The Pool House," and now Hood has also shared "The Forks Of Cypress," a new song with vocals from Waxahatchee leader Katie Crutchfield.
It's cool to think of Hood and Crutchfield being united by a grand Southern indie rock lineage, and they sound great together on "The Forks of Cypress." The song is a soft, dreamy meditation, and Crutchfield's quiet harmony vocals mesh nicely with Hood's creaky, lived-in voice. Kevin Morby and Phil and Brad Cook also played on the song. Waxahatchee released their own non-album single "Mud" a couple of weeks ago, and Crutchfield played a similar supporting role on Ben Kweller's excellent single "Dollar Store" last week. Here's what Hood says about "The Forks Of Cypress":
The Forks of Cypress a real place, a few miles just north of my hometown of Florence, Alabama. A former plantation house, once owned by a cousin of Andrew Jackson, it was struck by a "lightning cluster" in 1966 -- when I was two -- and exploded into flames, burning to the ground in under five minutes. All that was left were these huge columns, in a rectangle on top of the hill overlooking the meadow. It was right by a very creepy rickety one-lane bridge that the locals called Ghost Bridge. I drove past this (and crossed the scary bridge) every week of my childhood on my way to my Great Uncle’s house (where I spent every weekend). Later, as a teenager, kids would drive dates out to Ghost Bridge and tell ghost stories and make out. The bridge was torn down about a decade ago.
I wrote the song as pure fiction, inspired by those great story songs that Bobbie Gentry did, "Ode to Billie Joe," etc., where she implies a story without really telling it. In my head, I heard Katie Crutchfield singing it with me and was blessed that she was willing to do so. She’s one of my very favorite artists and such a lovely person.
The song was fleshed out wonderfully by Phil and Brad Cook (who played keyboards, dobro and bass on it), Dan Hunt on drums, and then Kevin Morby put the cherry on top with a stunning lead part.
Whipped cream and cherry.”
Check out "The Forks Of Cypress" below.
Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams is out 2/21 on ATO.
