"The Dirt Underneath tour was a real important thing for the future of our band and the direction of our record," he said. "Jason was a huge part of our band. There's no denying or underestimating what a huge part of the band he was for the five years he was in it. It wasn't just a matter of putting another guitar player on the stand where he used to play. That would have been kind of a worst nightmare ... a guitar player's worst nightmare, too.

"The plan was to strip it down to the barest essential of the song and work up and built the show that way," he said. "It gave us the chance to finetooth the way our sound was going to be. We let the band find its new thing and run with it from there. That was a big part of making this record was the tour. Now we plug it in and turn it up and go from there. We're not doing any sitting down this year."

Hood describes his band's rise in popularity over the past several years with their southern rock, alt-country sound, as a slow build.

"That's the best way. We're not the flavor of the month. You can't have a career that way," he said. "Before 'Southern Rock Opera' we weren't even a blip on the radar, but we were still playing 200 shows a year."

Many of those shows were in Salt Lake City and Park City. When asked about touring memories of Utah, one of Hood's fondest is sure to strike a chord with many longtime residents. Like a good number of locals, Patterson said he misses the days of playing at the old Zephyr in downtown Salt Lake City.

"Nothing took its place," he said. "It's fun to play in Salt Lake."

The DBT's past few shows have been in Park City. They return to Salt Lake City with a show at the new Paladium club. Patterson hopes the group's return to the city will also result in more fans making their way to the concert.

If you go ...

What: Drive-by Truckers

Where: The Paladium, 415 W. 600 North

When: Wednesday, 9 p.m.

How much: $22

Phone: 467-8499, 800-888-8499

Web: www.smithstix.com

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E-mail: preavy@desnews.com