Decoration Day

When Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane nosedived into a Mississippi forest, Southern rock pretty much crashed and burned, too. Now the Drive-By Truckers are doing their best to revive it. On Day they’re equal parts muscle, brains, and heart, balancing a soaring triple-guitar assault with gripping ballads and a gift for storytelling. There’s something undeniably Southern about a band that can put a sympathetic spin on incest (“The Deeper In”), but the Truckers lend Dixieland themes a whole new attitude.