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PATTERSON HOOD is a prolific writer and performer whose character-driven stories are packed with political subtext. He is best known as front-man, singer, songwriter and guitar player for the critically acclaimed rock and roll band Drive-By Truckers, but is also a writer of essays, columns and short stories. In the past few years he has written an op-ed on the on-going controversies surrounding the confederate flag for The New York Times Magazine, a piece on Vic Chesnutt for The Oxford American's annual music issue, and retrospectives on David Bowie for American Songwriter and Merle Haggard for NPR. Most recently in October of 2016, Patterson published his first short story featured in The Highway Kind, a car-themed crime fiction anthology.

Drive-By Truckers have released 13 albums and played over 2,000 shows in the past nineteen years. They also released a 35-song, career-spanning box set in 2015 that was recorded live at The Fillmore in San Francisco. American Band, their most recent album released in the height of election season on September 30th 2016, takes their political undertones much closer to the surface than ever before. The album delves into matters that resonate deeply in divided America, including last year's massacres in Charleston, SC and Roseburg, OR; the death of Michael Brown; the continued controversy over the Confederate flag; and the roots of the National Rifle Association. According to Patterson, the track “What It Means” is the most blatant protest song on the record. “I look at that song as the beginning of a conversation that, perhaps, we all need to have. I think white people are afraid to talk about race. Maybe it's time for us to get past that, too,” he explained in an interview with CNN.

Praises have rolled in for “American Band” since its release. NPR has claimed it to be one of the best albums yet from Drive-By Truckers, deeming it “unapologetically progressive,” and “a poignant take on what it means to be an American in a time when uncertainty and fear are omnipresent.” Rolling Stone raves, “'American Band' comes from the very distinct perspective of a group that remains burdened by, and reckoning with, its own bloody southern history.” The record has been also been recognized on several 2016 year-end lists including The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Rolling Stone, NPR, Uncut, and Entertainment Weekly.

In addition to his work with Drive-By Truckers, Patterson has amassed 3 solo albums and co-produced or played on additional albums by Bettye LaVette, Booker T. Jones and The Dexateens. As a speaker and lecturer, he has spoken and conducted classes at Princeton, The University of Indiana, The University of Georgia, and The University of Alabama. Earlier this year he spoke at the Frank and Kula Lumpuris Distinguished Lecture Series at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, and also delivered the commencement address to the graduating class of 2015 at the University of Northern Alabama.