This first phase of their life peaked with the double-CD The Southern Rock Opera (Soul Dump, 2001 - Lost Highway, 2002), mostly recorded live in the studio, which is both a rock opera and a tribute to the three-guitar sound of Lynyrd Skynyrd (Hood's The Southern Thing).

Guitarist and songwriter Jason Isbell joined the band for Decoration Day (New West, 2003), a cycle of songs about domestic and personal tragedies (Marry Me being the most aggressive), The Dirty South (New West, 2004), their best-selling album and another concept album, this time devoted to myths of the south (such as Isbell's solemn The Day John Henry Died, Cooley's Where the Devil Don't Stay), and the poppier and slicker A Blessing and a Curse (New West, 2006), with Cooley's Space City, three albums that displayed a songwriting team with few equals at the time, slowly converging towards the baroque country-pop sound pioneered by Wilco. Isbell then left the band and launched a solo career with Sirens of the Ditch (2007).

Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley continued without Isbell and with two new members, multi-instrumentalist John Neff and keyboardist Spooner Oldham, on The Dirt Underneath (2007), a rather inferior collection.

The overlong Brighter Than Creation's Dark (New West, 2008) could have been a killer mini-album if only the good material had been released, such as Hood's The Home Front, That Man I Shot, The Righteous Path and especially Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife, Cooley's Three Dimes Down, Lisa's Birthday and especially Self-Destructive Zones, and bassist Shonna Tucker's The Purgatory Line. However that's enough to make it one of their most evocative and profound collections.

Se sei interessato a tradurre questo testo, contattami