American Songwriter Live: Patterson Hood

As a songwriter, Patterson Hood has nothing to prove. The body of work that he has penned for Drive-By Truckers alone would make any songwriter proud. But the Alabama-born Hood is a prolific and restless artist, so it seems only natural that his songs have found another outlet in the form of a solo career.

Hood stopped by our office recently and peformed three songs from his latest solo album Heat Lightning Rumbles In The Distance  with keys man Jay Gonzalez – “15 Days (Leavin’ Time Again), “Heat Lightning Rumbles In The Distance” and “Better Than The Truth.”

In between songs, Hood chatted about the album, saying that many of the songs grew out of a semi-autobiographical novel he’d been writing about a down-and-out songwriter in his late 20s. Hood also talks about growing up in Alabama in the ‘70s with a hippie dad and a WWII era grandfather – and how the tension between those two poles has informed much of his writing.

Watch Hood perform the title track of the album and listen to a podcast of the full session below.

Audio recorded and mixed by Steve Martin. Video shot and edited by Neal Dahlgren. Photo by Matt Sellars. Text by Caine O’Rear.