Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams
Release date: 2/21/25 on ATO Records
Patterson Hood’s first solo record in over a decade was born out of a friendship with producer Chris Funk (The Decemberists). The pair would often perform together for fun and during Hood’s solo tours, making far-off plans to make a record together. They eventually went into Jackpot Studios in Portland. Many of the songs were composed on piano marking a bigger departure from his work with Drive-By Truckers than prior solo efforts. Guest appearances from: Waxhatchee, Wednesday and Lydia Loveless.
Heat Lightning Rumbles In The Distance
Release date: 9/11/12 on ATO Records
Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance is a reflective and deeply personal album. The record explores themes of nostalgia, loss, resilience, and redemption, blending Hood’s Southern rock roots with introspective storytelling and a quieter, more acoustic sound. Inspired partly by his unfinished novel, the album offers vignettes of life in the South, grappling with personal struggles, familial ties, and a sense of place.
Murdering Oscar (and other love songs)
Release date: 6/23/09 on Ruth St. Records/ ATO Records
Murdering Oscar is the second solo record from Patterson Hood, the leader of the Drive-By Truckers, and has been 15 years in the making. The album was produced by Hood and long-time DBT producer David Barbe (Sugar). Most of his DBT band mates join him on the album as well as Don Chambers, Will Johnson and Scott Danbom from Centro-matic/South San Gabriel. This is also the first time Hood’s father David Hood, famed Muscle Shoals bass player, joins him on a record.
The Making Of Murdering Oscar (and other love songs)
Murdering Oscar – Song by Song by Patterson Hood
Killers and Stars
Release date: 2004 self-release on Ruth St. Records, 3/7/06 on New West Records
My first solo album. Recorded in my dining room back in early 2001 during a very low time in my life.
Wasn’t initially intending it as an album as much as demos for a bunch of new songs I was writing during a period that saw me writing much of what became known as the Decoration Day album.
I holed up in the room with a guitar and a few other things and multi-tracked layers of guitar and vocal by myself.
I went out on a solo tour right after and made up a bunch of burned discs with a home-made cover based around a portrait my friend Toby Cole had made of Frances Farmer (pre-lobotomy).
That portrait had inspired the song of same title on album.
Later, I sold the album to New West for enough money to finance my honeymoon with Rebecca and we came home expecting a baby so it was probably the best deal I could have hoped for.
Includes favorites like “Uncle Disney” and “Old Timer’s Disease” as well as the Tom T. Hall cover Pay No Attention to Alice”.