Not every band with alt-country/rock roots successfully defies expectations to the extent that the Drive-By Truckers do. For eight records now, this Georgia-based outfit has chugged their way through career crises that would have derailed a lesser band.

With the release of Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, the Truckers have yet again dealt with internal turmoil and regrouped to record this sprawling epic. Most bands are lucky to have one gifted songwriter on board, but these guys have three strong contributors. They wrote and recorded over 50 songs for Creation’s Dark, eventually whittling them down to 19 for the disc.

Creation’s Dark touches on all of the band’s familiar themes, from subverting Southern stereotypes, exploring blue-collar, character-driven song-stories, to juggling their three-guitar attack. Their self-deprecating lyrics often underscore what it means to grow up in the South and still retain that identity through adulthood. The trick is they do this without resorting to the easy platitudes of Southern pride that would only demean their home region beneath the Mason Dixon line. The songs range between rave-up boogies, country soul numbers, and gutbucket balladry.

I recently spoke on the phone with Patterson Hood, the group’s spokesman/singer/guitarist, during their tour stop in Illinois. He explains, “We kind of hit a wall in ’06—we’d been on the road so long without a real break. That took its toll. There were some personal problems going on in the band too, some musical differences, but more than anything the band was just exhausted. We finally came to the point where we had to take some time off or we were going to break up. I’m glad we did, too; so many of my favorite bands broke up instead of taking six months off.”

With little prodding, Hood alludes to their recent troubles. Jason Isbell, one of their key songwriters besides co-founders Hood and Mike Cooley, quit the band to start a solo career. At the same time, Isbell and Shonna Tucker, the Truckers’ bass player, divorced, so you can see the built-in problems. Every new generation of bands must use Fleetwood Mac as a touchstone for domestic drama.

Hood admits, “I think Jason joining our band was a monumentally great thing. Our five years and three records together were great. But it had run its course—he was pushing in a different direction. And him moving on kind of freed him to do what he wanted, and it freed us as well. This record is what resulted from that. This is just a really good time now for the band.”

Ironically, I recently saw both Isbell and the Truckers perform live at different shows within a span of two weeks. Both played strong concerts, spraying a barrage of greasy guitar through their respective sets. The Truckers’ artillery, two lead guitarists and a pedal steel player, recalls the Stones’ jackknife riffing, as well as Lynyrd Skynyrd in their roadhouse grunge prime, though without the 10-minute jam codas. Maybe that shouldn’t surprise anyone, since they recorded a sincere homage to those Alabama legends with their concept record, Southern Rock Opera, in 2002.