The latest album by Drive-By Truckers, The Big To-Do, another gritty, grimly humourous batch of southern-fried guitar-rock about drinking, death and dead-end jobs, is getting rave reviews.

The Drive-By Truckers are finally getting somewhere.

After 14 years, almost as many albums, and countless miles on the road, the Georgia roots-rockers are riding high, thanks to their fittingly titled new album The Big To-Do.

“It’s pretty crazy these days, for sure,” drawls singer-guitarist Patterson Hood. “But it’s a good time for the band. It really is. We’re excited about the music we’re making, we’re all getting along good, and we’re happy with all of the people who work for us and with us. Everything’s going really, really well.”

Hood isn’t just whistling Dixie. The Truckers — whose current lineup includes co-founding singer-guitarist Mike Cooley, bassist Shonna Tucker, drummer Brad Morgan, guitarist John Neff and keyboardist Jay Gonzalez — have never had it so good.

The Big To-Do — another gritty, grimly humourous batch of southern-fried guitar-rock about drinking, death and dead-end jobs — is getting rave reviews. Their current tour has them opening for Tom Petty (though sadly, not in Canada). Potato Hole, their 2009 CD with Booker T. Jones, won the Memphis organ legend a Grammy. They’re even the subject of a new documentary titled The Secret to a Happy Ending.

All told, this could be the year Hood and co. finally make the long-overdue shift from beloved cult heroes to bona fide stars. Not bad for a band that was on the verge of a permanent breakdown just a few years ago, burned out by the endless grind of touring and deteriorating relationships.

I caught the 46-year-old Hood during a rare afternoon at home in Athens, Ga. Even so, the Alabama native was happy to discuss his group’s dark days, darker lyrics and sunny prospects.

A lot of people are calling The Big To-Do your breakthrough album. Do you pay attention to that stuff?

There’s definitely been a little more excitement around it than I’ve seen in a while, and that’s good. But I don’t necessarily have any strong thoughts or ambitions of it becoming the biggest thing ever. I’m not looking for the huge breakthrough. I don’t know if we’re even that kind of band. Hopefully we’re the kind of band that can continue making good records and interesting records...

But it’s got to feel good, especially since it sounds like you dodged a bullet a few years ago. ...

We kind of hit a wall in ’06 where a lot of things had to change within the band, and around the band. We had to come up with a plan so we could continue doing this without it driving us crazy. You know, when I was a teenager, I dreamed of doing exactly what I get to do now. So it almost seemed kind of disrespectful for it not to be fun. So we have tried to eliminate all the factors that were preventing it from being fun and I think it’s worked. We’re a lot happier now.

Yet the lyrics to your songs are always dark.

That’s what everybody keeps saying. I guess I’m just not a good judge. Obviously, we take on subjects that are not necessarily happy. But I like to think we do it with humour. And our show is a good time, even if the material that goes into it often is kind of dark. I guess it’s like the blues — Howling Wolf or Muddy Waters sing about the things in their lives that are going wrong, but the act of singing it is a joyful thing. I’ve always gravitated to that sort of music. There aren’t a lot of unabashedly happy songs in my favourite records. And the ones that are happy are generally from people who are way more f---ed-up than me, like Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. He wrote all those happy songs, but he had a sandbox in his house! (laughs)

I heard things went so well in the studio this time that you’ve already got your next album done.

Yeah, we recorded 32 or 33 songs. It was really a fun experience. All the rock songs went into The Big To-Do, and the other ones are going to be on an album called Go-Go Boots. It should come out in January. It’s sort of the polar opposite. Breaking it into projects, I think, benefited both albums. It would have ended up being a really long, schizophrenic record if we hadn’t done that.

How do you feel about the documentary film?

Making it was weird because we were going through a troubled time, and all of it was being filmed. So they captured moments in our lives that aren't necessarily some of my favourites. But going to see it was kind of cool; because everything is different now, it was like seeing a movie about someone else. I remember watching and thinking, 'That was really a lousy time those guys up there were going through!' And the title almost seems ironic because it's not a happy ending particularly. I guess the happy ending is the fact that isn't where it ended — things got better, and we've made five albums since then, counting the discs we did with Bettye LaVette and Booker T.

Do you have more collaboration CDs on the horizon, or are you focusing on the Truckers this year?

Definitely the band. Last year, we thought it was going to be a little of this and a little of that, and each of those things grew lives of their own. So it turned into a really hard year. I would literally get back from one tour and leave three days later doing something totally different with a different lineup. It was crazy. So I'm pretty excited that this year, all we have to do is play 175 shows!