Mike Cooley is primarily known as a guitarist, vocalist, and occasional banjo player for Drive-By Truckers and shares songwriting duties with Patterson Hood. The band formed in the mid-90s in Athens, Georgia and blend Southern rock with Americana.

Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Cooley received his first music lessons at age eight from Al Lester, a Muscle Shoals bluegrass artist who performed with such luminaries as Willie Nelson, Wilson Pickett, Bill Monroe, and Boz Scaggs. Lester even had his own TV show, and it was there that Cooley made some of his first public performances. After getting his first electric guitar, he played a couple of gigs with high school friends before taking a break from music making. Eventually, in 1985, he formed the post-punk act Adam's House Cat with Hood, his then roommate. Once the group disbanded they occasionally worked together as a duo under the moniker Virgil Kane, named after the main character in the Band's 1969 track, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." Their next band, Horsepussy, was formed when the pair resided in Auburn, Alabama, but this was also a short-lived affair.

After Hood had spent some time in Athens, Georgia, he eventually persuaded Cooley to join him, and it was there that they formed Drive-By Truckers in 1996. Cooley contributed six songs to their career highlight, 2014's English Oceans, and by the end of 2020 they had recorded 13 studio albums and garnered a reputation as a raucous, hard-working live act. Along the way, Cooley issued a pared-down, live solo acoustic set, 2012's The Fool on Every Corner. Recorded at The Earl in Atlanta, it showcased his narrative songwriting and accomplished fingerpicking technique on revamped versions of Cooley's compositions from the Drive-By Truckers' canon. Although Cooley and Hood would sporadically perform as the live acoustic duo the Dimmer Twins, Cooley's place in Drive-By Truckers continued to be his main musical outlet. However, in 2021, an expansive, seven-year-old performance was issued as Live at The Shoals Theatre, June 15th, 2014, billing Cooley alongside Hood and former Drive-By Trucker-turned-solo artist Jason Isbell. ~ James Wilkinson

A songwriter who pens forceful, literate, but unpretentious stories of life in the American South, Patterson Hood is best known as the leader of the hard rock band the Drive-By Truckers, and he's also pursued a solo career as well as writing and producing for other artists. While Hood delivers both electric and acoustic material with the DBTs, he tends to save his more personal and emotionally intimate material for his solo efforts, leaving rock by the wayside in favor of low-key pop and contemporary folk. 2004's Killers and Stars was a lo-fi experiment devoted to themes that wouldn't fit his band, 2012's Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance featured songs inspired by an uncompleted novel by Hood, and 2020's Live at the Shoals Theatre, June 15, 2014 documented a concert with Hood performing with Jason Isbell and Mike Cooley.

Patterson Hood was born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama on March 24, 1964. His father is David Hood, a respected session musician who was the bassist with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Growing up in a musical household, Hood began writing songs when he was eight years old, and at 14 he was playing guitar in a local rock band. Hood was attending college in 1985 when he formed the band Adam's House Cat with his friend and roommate Mike Cooley. The group developed a local following and won Musician Magazine's Best Unsigned Band competition in 1988, but the band's regional success didn't lead to a wider audience, and they broke up without ever releasing their only album. Hood and Cooley continued to work together, playing as a duo under the name Virgil Kane and later in a short-lived band called Horsepussy.

In 1996, Hood and Cooley were both living in Athens, Georgia, and the pair decided to take one more stab at forming a band. The new group was called the Drive-By Truckers, whose style was informed by both country and hard rock. The band toured hard behind their first two albums, 1998's Gangstabilly and 1999's Pizza Deliverance, and the 2000 live set Alabama Ass Whuppin' documented their growing strength on-stage, but it was 2001's Southern Rock Opera that truly put the band on the map. A concept album following the rise and fall of a band not unlike Lynyrd Skynyrd and the sometimes-difficult legacies of life in the South, Southern Rock Opera earned critical praise and impressive sales. Originally released by the band's own Soul Dump Records, in 2002 Southern Rock Opera was reissued by Lost Highway Records after the DBTs were signed to a recording contract. The deal with Lost Highway proved to be short lived; the label rejected the Truckers' follow-up to Southern Rock Opera, 2003's Decoration Day, and after buying back the master, the DBTs struck a new deal with the independent New West label, who promptly released the album as-is to more critical success. Between 2004 and 2008, the DBTs would release three more albums for New West -- 2004's The Dirty South, 2006's A Blessing and a Curse, and 2008's Brighter Than Creation's Dark -- to a growing audience, supported by a rigorous touring schedule. During this period, New West released Hood's first solo album. 2004's Killers and Stars was a set of dark, acoustic-based tunes that Hood had previously distributed in a limited edition at the merch table at his occasional solo shows, and dealt with themes that fell outside the Drive-By Truckers' usual fare. Hood also branched out into production, and was behind the controls for three albums issued in 2007 -- The Scene of the Crime by Bettye LaVette (with the Drive-By Truckers as her backing band), Sirens of the Ditch by former DBTs guitarist Jason Isbell, and Hardwire Healing by the Dexateens.

In 2009, Hood delivered his second solo effort, Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs), a significantly more polished and confident effort than Killers and Stars that was released by Ruth St. Records. He launched a solo tour in support of the album, and that same year, he and the Drive-By Truckers had the honor of backing legendary keyboardist Booker T. Jones on the album Potato Hole. In 2010, Hood was back in action with the Drive-By Truckers for the album The Big To-Do, their first under a new deal with ATO Records. (During the interim, New West released a set the DBTs' recorded in 2008 for the PBS series Austin City Limits under the title Live from Austin, TX.) In 2011, Hood popped up on the album Welcome 2 My Nightmare by veteran shock rocker Alice Cooper, with Hood co-writing the song "I Gotta Get Outta Here" and contributing backing vocals. That same year, the DBTs were back with another studio album, Go-Go Boots, while in 2012, Hood released his third solo album, Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance. A set of songs drawn from an uncompleted novel Hood wrote during a period of personal crisis, Heat Lightning was his most personal work to date, and he assembled a band called the Downtown Rumblers to back him on a concert tour in support. Also in 2012, Hood released a single, "After It's Gone," with an ad-hoc group called the Downtown 13, which included members of R.E.M. and Widespread Panic; the song was written and released as part of an effort to keep big-box stores out of downtown Athens, Georgia. Hood recorded another solo track in 2013, a cover of Slim Dunlap's "Hate This Town," which appeared on the collection Songs for Slim: Rockin' Here Tonight -- A Benefit Compilation for Slim Dunlap, which was released as a fundraiser for the former Replacements guitarist after he suffered a massive stroke.

The ever-prolific DBTs released another studio album in 2014, English Oceans, and the following year, they released an epic-scale (over three hours) live album, It's Great to Be Alive!, recorded during a three-night stand at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. Hood, who often deals with political and social issues in his lyrics, wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times on the then-growing controversy over the flying of the Confederate battle flag in the South; "The South’s Heritage Is So Much More Than a Flag" was published in July 2015. Hood continued to speak out on political and cultural division in America on the DBTs' 2016 effort American Band, which was the group's most topical effort to date. In 2018, the long-unreleased Adam's House Cat album was finally issued under the title Town Burned Down. Two more topical sets from the Drive-By Truckers followed in 2020, The Unraveling and The New OK, informed by the latter days of the Donald Trump presidency and the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, Jason Isbell's Southeastern label issued Live at the Shoals Theatre, June 15, 2014, a concert recording that documented a show where Hood performed as a trio with Isbell and Mike Cooley. ~ Mark Deming

After six years with the Southern rock outfit the Drive-By Truckers, singer and guitarist Jason Isbell left the group in 2007 to pursue a solo career, becoming one of the most successful and respected figures in the alt-country and singer/songwriter communities. While full of Southern grit, Isbell's songs also show off an introspective side and a gift for nuanced storytelling. His early solo efforts, such as 2007's bluesy, punk-infused Sirens of the Ditch, boasted a raw, rootsy flavor filled with youthful swagger. After coming to terms with a dependence on alcohol and drugs, Isbell's songwriting gained greater depth; 2013's Southeastern, his first album after getting sober, was a major critical commercial success full of self-confessional depth. 2021's Georgia Blue saw him honoring artists from the state of Georgia, and 2023's Weathervanes was a collection of songs about the tribulations of life as a grown-up in America.

After parting ways with the Drive-By Truckers in 2007, Isbell wasted no time launching a solo career, and a collection of songs he'd been tinkering with for years formed the basis of Sirens of the Ditch, which was co-produced by DBT's frontman Patterson Hood and featured former bandmates Brad Morgan on drums and Shonna Tucker on bass. Backed by a new band dubbed the 400 Unit, Isbell took his songs on the road and soon began penning another album, which he recorded with the 400 Unit in 2008. Released the following year, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit was another step away from his work with the Drive-By Truckers, relying as much on sad, melancholic country ballads as the familiar Muscle Shoals sound.

After performing more than 200 shows annually for several years running, Isbell took a breather in 2010 and returned home to northern Alabama. The area had been hit hard by the recent economic downturn, prompting him to write a new batch of songs about the war vets, barflies, and out-of-luck characters who populated the area. The result was Here We Rest, which was released in spring 2011 to critical acclaim. Isbell followed it a year later in 2012 with a live set, Live from Alabama, recorded at the WorkPlay Theater in Birmingham and at the Crossroads in Huntsville. Embracing his newfound sobriety, Isbell next produced an album of haunting atonement and redemption, the sparse and impressive Southeastern, which appeared in 2013. That same year he married Amanda Shires, a talented fiddler and vocalist who was a key member of the 400 Unit. Southeastern was a smash with critics and a commercial success that introduced Isbell to a new and larger audience.

In 2014, Isbell issued Live at Austin City Limits, a video release documenting a set he played for the long-running PBS music series. Later the same year, he returned to the studio to record the follow-up to Southeastern. The resulting Something More Than Free appeared in July 2015 and took home the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album the following year. In March 2017, Isbell released "Hope the High Road," the first single from The Nashville Sound, which arrived in June. Credited to Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, the album was fittingly more band-oriented than Isbell's previous two efforts, boasting a bigger and more musically diverse sound. More touring followed, and Isbell and the 400 Unit played a sold-out six-night stand that year at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry. Several of the shows were recorded, and a 13-song concert souvenir LP, Live from the Ryman, was released in October 2018.

May 2020 saw Isbell release his sixth full-length studio effort, Reunions, a more production-savvy set that mixed introspective personal numbers with songs addressing larger political and social concerns. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Isbell pledged that if Joe Biden prevailed in Georgia's election, he would record an album of songs by his favorite artists from the Peach State, with a share of the proceeds donated to non-profit progressive organizations. Biden and the Democrats took back the White House, and true to his word, Isbell cut Georgia Blue, a 13-song set including tunes made famous by R.E.M., Otis Redding, the Black Crowes, James Brown, Cat Power, the Allman Brothers Band, and more. The LP, released in October 2021, included guest appearances from Brandi Carlile, Béla Fleck, John Paul White of the Civil Wars, and Adia Victoria. Also in 2021, Isbell was cast in a supporting role in Martin Scorsese's screen adaptation of David Grann's book Killers of the Flower Moon.

Isbell and Shires were named Ambassadors for Record Store Day 2023, which took place on April 22, and in addition to promoting the annual event in support of independent record stores, they recorded an EP to be released for RSD 2023. Sound Emporium featured one new song each from Shires and Isbell, a new recording of Isbell's "Tour of Duty," and a cover of Richard Thompson's "Beeswing." Jason Isbell: Running with Our Eyes Closed was an unblinkingly candid documentary by filmmaker Sam Jones that examined Isbell's life, career, and relationship with Shires. The film debuted on HBO Max in April 2023 and received extensive critical praise. June 2023 saw the release of Isbell's ninth studio effort, Weathervanes, a powerful collection of songs about the personal and political obstacles of American life in 2023. It was the first LP Isbell produced himself since 2011's Here We Rest, recorded live in the studio in just ten days. ~ James Christopher Monger & Mark Deming