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The marriage of bassist Shonna Tucker and singer-songwriter-guitarist Jason Isbell had hit the skids, putting pressure on the couple and the band.
Isbell, already chafing at the constraints of being one songwriter in a band that boasted three, had finished a solo record and was preparing to tour behind it.
The band members responded not by retreating to a safe harbor but by rushing headlong into a hurricane named Bettye LaVette.
At the insistence of Andy Kaulkin, the president of Epitaph Records, the hard-rocking Drive-By Truckers were sent into the studio to back LaVette, a long-forgotten soul singer of uncommon talent who had recently mounted a fierce comeback. Patterson Hood, the Truckers' de facto leader, was picked to produce the 62-year-old LaVette's album.
Hood knew he was in for a bumpy ride.
"The biggest problem we had was really a lack of trust on her end," Hood said during a recent telephone interview from his mother's home in Florence, Ala. "I understood that. I understood going in that she has no reason to trust us. All she heard were a few tracks off our records, and she was convinced we were going to bury her beautiful voice under a wall of guitar."
LaVette — a feisty, determined woman who had learned during her bumpy career to trust no one — tried hard to get rid of the band during the sessions. Isbell, who didn't want to put up with it, dropped out of the project to concentrate on his upcoming tour.
But Hood and his fellow Truckers persevered, and they and LaVette left the studio after 10 tough days with "The Scene of the Crime," a sublime album that put her comeback on even firmer footing.
"In the end, I think everybody was happy," Hood said. "Everybody was happy with the record. If it had been badly received, I'm not sure how long her happiness would have lasted, but the fact that it came out and got really good reviews and she got nominated for a Grammy (she did not win) and all of that, it all ended up in a very positive light."
Isbell left the band, which will perform Thursday at the Dragonfly nightclub in Harrisburg, shortly after the LaVette sessions, for which Hood had brought in keyboardist Spooner Oldham.
Hood said working without Isbell and with Oldham helped point the band in the direction it would pursue post-Isbell.
"It gave us the chance to all work together without (Isbell), and having Spooner there kind of solidified what became that lineup of our band," he said. "Working on that record with Spooner, we decided we've got to do this again.
"We decided to make another record without somebody yelling at us all the time."
The record they made, "Brighter Than Creation's Dark," the band's seventh studio album, introduced another singer-songwriter to take Isbell's place — Tucker.
Tucker contributed three songs, Hood wrote seven and guitarist-singer Mike Cooley added nine. The album, which showcases the Truckers' range, is one of the band's best, perhaps its strongest since "Decoration Day" (2003).
Hood said he believes the band's sound, which had been built on the three-guitar attack favored by many southern rock bands, has changed with the departure of Isbell and the addition of Oldham, who plays on "Creation's Dark" and is touring with the group.
"I really, really, really have become into the space between notes," he said. "To me, it had gotten to where everything was getting a little bit too busy, too much going on, too many notes.
"The quiet spaces are truly quieter now. Then, when it gets big and loud, it's more powerful. And it's a little meaner."
He said the band's shows are about two hours long and feature anywhere from five to 10 songs from "Creation's Dark," along with favorites like "When the Pin Hits the Shell," "Lookout Mountain" and "Let There Be Rock."
Hood also said the band is now enjoying a relative period of peace after all the turmoil.
"I'm not one of those people who thrive on turbulence and drama," Hood said. "I hate drama. I kind of thrive on being laid back and peaceful. Our music may not be either of those things, but the environment around it — I think we're more creative when it's like that."
Drive-By Truckers, with the Dexateens, Thursday, 9 p.m., Dragonfly Club, 234 N. Second St., Harrisburg, $22, (866) 468-7619.
E-mail: jferguson@lnpnews.com
