 38
SPECIAL DRIVETRAIN
After more than three decades together, 38 Special is
still playing more than 100 shows per year. And at every
one of them, thousands of audience members are
completely blindsided by the power and muscle of the
band's performance. "When we come out, people are like,
'Whoa! It's like a freight train rolling over them…'"
says vocalist/guitarist Don Barnes. While most associate
the group with its arena-rock '80s pop smashes, these
days the band’s harder edge is what is immediately
noticeable. Barnes says it’s all about maintaining the
intensity that they deliver in their live shows.
So when the group went in to record Drivetrain (July 27,
Sanctuary Records), its first full studio album in
years, it sought to capture that live energy on disc.
And as a result, 38 Special, over twenty-five years
later, has never sounded so powerful and ‘in your face.’
Having had its share of success in the pop realm -
selling some 15 million albums - the group sought to
make this album all about attitude. It sounds rude,
Barnes says, and it was meant to.
“This album won't get labeled as the pop record of the
year,” frontman Donnie Van Zant says with a hearty
laugh, noting that, to him, Drivetrain is the ultimate
38 Special album: “It really personifies what rock and
roll is all about. It's greasy, it's loud and it's
proud. We’ve always been a band that strives to stay
honest with what has driven us over the years. And it’s
the greatest validation for us to reach that kind of
longevity. The ‘drivetrain’ on any motorized machine,
from giant earth-movers to Indy cars, is what keeps the
wheels on the road and in the game,” Van Zant states,
“This music keeps our wheels on the road.”
The often-bombastic blues-rock tracks compiling
Drivetrain owe their rawness to a more natural
production approach favored by Barnes and fellow
guitarist/vocalist Danny Chauncey, who produced the disc
together. Barnes says that over the years they had grown
weary of the safe, slick approach employed by some of
the band's previous producers. "They always felt that
they needed to clean everything up, put everything in
its place and make sure that it's all nice," Barnes
says. “Our goal was to make this not real nice.” No
other track on the album reveals their edge and
horsepower like the lead radio single “Hurts Like Love.”
 Danny
Chauncey offers his take on the production, “There
always seemed to be that intangible thing missing from
past recording sessions. Sometimes controlled chaos can
be a good thing, so we cranked up the amps and turned
the room mics up to get the ambient noise from the
bashing drums and bass. We wanted to capture that
explosive attitude, capture what we sound like live with
a 50-foot-tall P.A. system."
Drivetrain's southern-rock-tinged, sometimes big
chorus-laden tracks—some of which were penned with
longtime songwriting partner Jim Peterik—touch on
politics, hope, love and rampant passion. But mostly, it
shows the heart of a seasoned band after decades of
intense roadwork.
“Something I Need,” “Quick Fix,” as well as the first
single from the album, “Hurts Like Love,” focus on
extreme desire to the point of obsession. “Jam On,” like
many of the cuts on the disc, came from an idea that the
band had been kicking around for a couple of years.
After Barnes saw U2 frontman Bono on the cover of Time
magazine waving an American flag, they were inspired to
finish the track. The song became sort of a reaction to
the war-torn world we now live in, with an idealized
solution.
“He was championing a peaceful resolution with the power
of music bringing about unity, and to us it was kind of
like, ‘Hey, this is a screwed up world and nobody has
all the answers, but if you think music can somehow make
some changes, then we're all behind you, so jam on.’”
Barnes says. "That was kind of our little political
commentary. The rest of the songs are about cars and
girls," he says with a laugh.
On “Haley's Got a Harley,” Van Zant gets more expressive
and dynamic than ever: “As a vocalist, I just really
went outside of myself on that," he says. " The track
was just so dirty and I wanted to push it even further.
I really used my voice differently than I would
normally. It's something that I always wanted to do, so
I went for it.”
Rounded out by bassist Larry "L.J." Junstrom, drummer
Gary Moffatt and keyboardist/vocalist Bobby Capps, the
band wrote roughly 30 songs for Drivetrain, deciding to
drop some of the lighter ones because they didn't fit
the attitude of the record. "We love all kinds of songs.
But this album just happens to be one that has the
aggression from beginning to end. There might be a
couple of lighter moments in it, but that was just maybe
for relief," Barnes laughs. "They're there to give the
listener time to breathe for a minute. But each song has
a totally different personality. That's what I really
like about it. They don't sound the same."
While it's been years since the last full 38 Special
studio record, it's not as if the band has been dormant.
Far from it. In addition to its intensely rigorous
touring schedule every year, the group wrote the
complete soundtrack and performed music for the film
Super Troopers (the Drivetrain song, "Trooper With an
Attitude," first appeared in the film). In addition to
cutting a Christmas album in 2001, they contributed a
track to a Hank Williams Jr. tribute disc, after
delivering an explosive live set, 1999's “Live at
Sturgis” (available on Sanctuary Records as a DVD and
companion CD).
Van Zant, the brother of late Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman
Ronnie Van Zant, and Barnes co-founded the band in its
hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, nearly three decades
ago. In its early days, the band built its reputation
with its brand of Southern boogie and blues-rock, before
transforming into a more arena-rock-friendly style. In
its second decade, the band scored big with a slew of
hits, including such rockers as “Caught Up in You,”
“Hold on Loosely,” “If I’d Been the One,” and “Rockin’
into the Night.”
Since 1975, the band has released more than 15 albums
and from the start, they've toured relentlessly. And the
magic's still there, says Van Zant. "It's a high I can't
describe to you. It’s almost like flying. When I walk up
those steps to that stage and hear that audience roar,
sometimes I feel like Don and I don't even have to sing,
because the crowds are so vocal."
Says Barnes, "We’ve always carried an attitude that
we’re going out there to win and God help whoever has to
follow us, you know? We’ve never taken a backseat to
anyone. We take the crowd for a ride and try to end up
triumphant every night. And since we’ve had the good
fortune to have a lot of hit songs over the years, we
just line 'em up and shoot 'em down. By the end of the
show, they're completely exhausted along with us."
And it should be no time before those fans are singing
every word to the tracks that compose Drivetrain. Some
listening advice from Van Zant: "The way to play this
disc is to turn it up to 10, and get ready to take the
ride." |
