All the footage used in the new video for Drive-By Truckers’ ‘The New OK’ was shot in Portland, Oregon in the summer of 2020. Quite simply, it is shocking to see the scenes that took place on the streets of America. As Patterson Hood of the Truckers says, “The New OK is not OK.” The level of early voting in this year’s election indicates that there could be the highest turnout for a century. As the USA rages with internal turmoil, it has never been more important to use your vote. This video is intense, emotional and directly addresses the disunity at the heart of the United States.
‘The New OK’ is the title track from Drive-By Truckers’ second album release of the year. Founding member Patterson Hood says the new record is: “…a full album that hopefully balances out the darkness of our current situation with a hope for better days and nights ahead. To call these past few months trying would be a dramatic understatement. Our lives are intertwined with our work in ways that give us our best songs and performances. It is a life that has often rewarded us beyond our wildest dreams. Speaking for myself, I don’t have hobbies, I have this thing I do. To be side-lined with a brand new album and have to sit idly while so much that I love and hold dear falls apart before my very eyes has been intense, heart-breaking, anger-provoking and very depressing. It has gone to the very heart of our livelihoods and threatened near everything that we have spent our lives trying to build. Here’s to the hope that we can make 2021 a better year than this one has been. In the meantime, here’s to THE NEW OK!”
This is a great song with a significant message at critical moment in time. Our American friends may not feel it is the place of Americana UK to be partisan in a US election. But, my friends, the world is watching.
Hopefully we won’t let you,and ourselves,down again.