It's been seven years since the Drive-by Truckers released Southern Rock Opera, the double-album magnum opus that propelled them out of indie-rock obscurity and into the pages of Rolling Stone.

They earned a four-star review and, after selling 10,000 copies of the album out of their van, landed major label distribution and haven't looked back since.

That hasn't stopped everyone else from looking back however, despite the band releasing four albums since then, including this year's stunning Brighter Than Creation's Dark.

Singer/guitarist Patterson Hood, who takes the Sled Island main stage at Mewata Field, along with the rest of the Drive-By Truckers this afternoon, isn't complaining.

"When we were working on it, I don't think any of us had any idea it would do what it did," says Hood.

One of the many things it did was serve as a loose chronicle of Hood's Alabama youth, stuck in that middle era between the prominence of bands like the great Lynyrd Skynyrd and the rise of punk rock.

It was roughly the time of the plane crash that killed original Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant.

"I wasn't liking that music at all, it was shoved down my throat and I kind of ran like hell and rebelled," says Hood.

"I was into the Clash and Elvis Costello at the time."

In later years though, Hood would come to appreciate and love Lynyrd Skynyrd and, in the process of creating Southern Rock Opera, he would simultaneously narrate the angst of his teenage years and the early downfall of the band that would eventually become a major influence.

Today, they are the preeminent ambassadors of what we call Southern Rock.

Hood doesn't mind that association, but strives to be kept separate form the ilk that followed in the wake of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

"After the plane crash, you had a lot of bands with the haircut, or lack of haircut, waving the rebel flag around and putting together some really bad lyrics with really bad right-wing politics. It got embarrassing."

Hood doesn't have to worry about being lumped into that crowd, one he cites bands like Molly Hatchet as being a member of.

While they do have the epic sound and three-guitar attack typical of the genre, there is a scrappy garage quality to the playing and a raw punk energy that brings the band into the 21st century.

The newest record serves up plenty of prime examples, from the distorted drive of The Man I Shot detailing an American soldier's attempt to reconcile his actions overseas to the dreamy ballad Daddy Needs a Drink.

There are more than a few bands that bridge the gap between new sounds and mainstream accessibility at Sled Island this year, but the Drive-By Truckers have one of the best shots at becoming a household name on the level of Neil Young.

Another band worthy of similar mainstream attention, not that they seem concerned about it, is the Gutter Twins.

Formed by Mark Lannegan of the Screaming Trees and Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs, they bring their new breed of brooding, gothic blues to the main stage right after The Drive-By Truckers and are not to be missed.