Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood Rumbles Into Sweetwater This Week

Two years ago, as he caught a rare break between tours and albums, Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood sat down to write a novel, a semi-autobiographical novel within which he wove occasional song lyrics between the chapters.

Not surprisingly for a songwriter who once wrote "500 songs in a three-year period," those interwoven lyrics became songs that turned into Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance, his latest solo album.

Hood, widely regarded as a sensational songwriter, rumbles into the Sweetwater Music Hall Friday and Saturday for a pair of shows. Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance features appearances from Hood’s Drive-By Truckers bandmates Mike Cooley, Jay Gonzalez, Brad Morgan and John Neff, as well as Scott Danbom and Will Johnson from Centro-matic, Kelly Hogan and Hood’s own father, Muscle Shoals bassist David Hood.

“The songs begin in the period that the book was set in, but don’t end there, as they really just were the impetus for writing about the life I am living now and contrasting it with the troubled times of two decades ago," Hood wrote in the liner notes for Heat Lightning. "It is in some ways the most personal album I’ve ever made. There has always been a lot of me in all of the albums we’ve done, but usually semi-disguised as character sketches and stories. But the first person narrative in this one is pretty firmly rooted in autobiography, albeit in two dramatically differing time periods.”

The 411: Patterson Hood with Jay Gonzalez & Brad Morgan perform Friday and Saturday at the Sweetwater Music Hall, 19 Corte Madera Ave., at 9 p.m. Go here for tickets.

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• Police Arrest Suspected Serial Bank Robber After Botched Heist of U.S. Bank
• Police Blotter: $10,000 Bike Theft, Online Dating and Backstage Bandit at the Sweetwater
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