Honest political art must walk the line between ambiguity and conviction. Sloganeering, no matter how righteous the fight, eventually ends in middle-aged exhaustion. This is especially the case when the tribe is the cause. No song better exemplifies the success of American Band than “Ever South,” an odd mix of (Irish-)European pride and settler confessional. The point is that none of our ancestors were unequivocal heroes and few were irremediable villains. The immigrants didn’t know what the hell they were doing when they scrambled onto ships—or what the hell was happening when they were forced onto ships—and they built homes and dispossessed the homes of others and fled from self-loathing and learned to hate and articulated stories to rationalize it all. America is what arises out of all this interminable stumbling. No wonder it’s so hard to figure out how to save ourselves. Bearing witness is a good start. 8
Drive-By Truckers. American Band. ATO Records, 2016. Reviewed October 19, 2024. Notable tracks: “Ever South,” “What It Means,” “Ramon Casiano,” “Once They Banned Imagine.”