Article Contributed by New West Records
Published on November 13, 2025
Drive-By Truckers will release The Definitive Decoration Day tomorrow via New West Records. The 4-LP box set features the 15-track album remixed by its original producer David Barbe, remastered by Greg Calbi, and cut at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London, UK. The new collection includes the previously unreleased double album Heathens Live at Flicker Bar, Athens, GA – June 20, 2002, and a 40-page, full-color book featuring never-before-seen photos and artwork, as well as a new essay written by Drive-By Truckers’ biographer Stephen Deusner, author of Where the Devil Don’t Stay: Traveling the South with the Drive-By Truckers. Met with critical acclaim, Uncut Magazine awarded The Definitive Decoration Day a perfect 10/10 Rating, saying “Their brilliant, unsentimental fourth… It’s an album about choices and consequences, and whether we really get much say in either. It was also the second Drive-By Truckers album of which someone could reasonably wonder: is this the greatest rock ‘n’ roll record of the 21st century?”
Decoration Day was the Drive-By Truckers’ first album with Jason Isbell, who joined the band in late 2001. “The legacy of the band has definitely grown,” says Isbell, “and there’s a new appreciation for the Truckers and especially for that era of Decoration Day. Without them you wouldn’t have the kind of work being done by MJ Lenderman and Wednesday and Waxahatchee and a bunch of other acts. I can hear the Truckers in all that music.”
Drive-By Truckers will reunite with Jason Isbell for a special performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on December 2. The band’s Patterson Hood said, “Amid all of the excitement this week for the release of The Definitive Decoration Day, we are thrilled to announce a very special appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. On Tuesday, December 2nd we will be playing a song with the very special guest, and former Drive-By Trucker, Jason Isbell. Although we have always remained friends with Jason, and honestly he and I are closer now than ever, this is our first ‘announced’ appearance together in nearly 20 years. I consider Decoration Day to be our masterpiece, and he was such an integral part of that album that it’s wonderful that he’s able to join us in celebrating this release. Colbert has always been our favorite, so we are really psyched to be on his show again, with our previous appearance being the week of the election in 2016. This is a rare treat for us (and you).”
Today, GQ premiered Heathens Live at Flicker Bar, Athens, GA – June 20, 2002 in its entirety alongside an excerpt from Stephen Deusner’s Definitive Decoration Day liner notes. The previously unreleased album is a stripped-down, acoustic performance from the band’s hometown, recorded a year before Decoration Day’s release. It is a rich, historic document in the band’s evolution and a holy grail for their fans, featuring the band performing several of these songs for the first time ever. Says Hood, “We decided that it would be fun to go play an acoustic late-night show at the tiny Flicker Bar, less than a block away from our beloved 40 Watt Club. We ended up playing a set that included all but one song off of our new, but still unfinished album. I didn’t even know until recently that there was an existing tape of the show. This is a beautiful document of our band at a very crucial and joyous moment in time. I’m so happy that it exists.” Hear Heathens Live at Flicker Bar, Athens, GA – June 20, 2002 in full HERE.
Decoration Day remains an incredibly influential album in the Drive-By Truckers’ catalog, one that has connected with new generations of artists and fans. Karly Hartzmann of Wednesday says, “Decoration Day reminds me that a song can be a piece of advice, a grudge, a suicide note, a bargaining for mercy, or a veneer over the rot. It’s music that delivers the bad news but kisses the bruises it leaves.”
Craig Finn of The Hold Steady says, “Decoration Day was the Drive-By Truckers’ three songwriters firing on all cylinders—alternately thoughtful, pissed off, charming, surly and often hilarious. I marvel at this record. It’s a true American classic.”
BJ Barham of American Aquarium adds, “This is, without a doubt, one of my desert island records. Without DBT’s Decoration Day, there is no American Aquarium. Long live DBT!”
The Definitive Decoration Day will be available across digital platforms, standard black vinyl, and as a 3-CD set. A limited olive color vinyl edition will be available at independent retailers, and a limited to 150 blue-and-burgundy-swirl color vinyl edition will be available at Seasick Records in Birmingham, Alabama. In addition, a special, limited-to-300 HeAthens red-and-black vinyl edition will be available at local participating retailers in Athens, Georgia, and for pickup at the New West Records’ Athens office. A limited-to-1,000 burgundy color vinyl edition is available NOW via NEW WEST RECORDS.
