Matt Patton will play bass with Drive-By Truckers this month. As previously reported, longtime Truckers bassist Shonna Tucker left the group in December, and the group plans to perform with several different guest bassists throughout 2012. Truckers pal David Barbe is also slated to appear on the band’s forthcoming studio album.

A note from Truckers frontman Patterson Hood says:

Y’ALL:

We’re a couple of weeks away from our spring tour, which this year will be two legs, the first taking us to Colorado, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. The second leg, in April, will take us to Alabama, Florida, Virginia,North and South Carolina then (nearly) back home to Georgia. For these shows, we are proud and pleased to announce that we will be joined on bass by old friend and partner in Rock, Matt Patton.

_Matt is the bass player in The Dexateens, one of our favorite bands. I had the honor of working with him a few years back when I co- produced their Hardwire Healing album.
The Teens don’t play out nearly enough these days and we are thrilled to have him out with us for a couple of months._

As I’ve said before, we won’t be naming a permanent member anytime too soon. This is an “off” year with limited touring and a lot of other activities on our plate. David Barbe played bass on much of my upcoming solo album, and the plan is still to have him play on our next album, which we are not starting any time soon, so the plan could change before that happens.

At any rate, the last thing we want to do is rush into anything right now, as we’ve repeatedly said we want some time off and I want to see where that break leads us, musically and otherwise.

At any rate, Matt Patton is a fantastic player and he brings a very cool energy (and tons of fun) to the stage.

We look forward to crossing the country with him and based on the practice we had recently, it’s going to be a blast. I look forward to seeing many of you there.

Long Live Rock!
Patterson Hood
Drive-By Truckers

PS: Congrats to Cooley on 5/SOLD OUT Solo Shows. The two I caught were incredible and I hope he does more in the not too distant.

Drive-By Truckers’ upcoming dates with Patton

March 9 Ogden Theatre Denver, CO
March 10 Fox Theatre Boulder, CO
March 11 Belly Up Aspen, CO
March 13 Crescent Ballroom Phoenix, AZ
March 14 Belly Up Tavern Solana Beach, CA
March 15 House of Blues West Hollywood, CA
March 16 The Fillmore San Francisco, CA
March 18 McDonald Theatre Eugene, OR
March 20 Showbox at the Market Seattle, WA
March 21 The Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR
March 22 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC