Over a period of several months in early 2009, Drive-By Truckers recorded enough material for two records, to be released eleven months apart. The first album to be issued from these sessions was The Big To-Do, an album of galumphing guitars and grandiose arrangements whose parallels between the life of a rock and roll band and a traveling circus did not stop at its artwork (created, like every Drive-By Truckers album since Southern Rock Opera, by Wes Freed). The album is appropriately named; everything about The Big To-Do is writ large, even when the material doesn’t always deserve capital letters. Though now-legendary mastering issues add an unwelcome layer of distortion to several songs, David Barbe’s sumptuous production crackles; songs like the Wurlitzer-assisted “Fourth Night Of My Drinking,” and the melodic-but-muscular “Daddy Learned To Fly” provide some of the band’s best sounding material to date. Cooley’s “Birthday Boy,” written from the point of view of smartass stripper, is mandatory ‘best of’ material, while “Get Downtown” rather brilliantly uses the template of a 70s-era sitcom to personalize, to the beat of 70s boogie, the recession’s effect on the hoi polloi. Album highlight “The Wig He Made Her Wear” is a riveting account of a trial involving an uxoricidal preacher, complete with swooping guitars and tasteful accompaniment, thanks in no small part to new keyboardist Jay Gonzales. Unfortunately, the album also features some of the band’s least memorable material since Gangstabilly: Bassist Shonna Tucker’s two lyrically light contributions are her most frustratingly insubstantial yet; Cooley’s sentimental “Eyes Like Glue” is conspicuously and uncharacteristically trite; and Hood’s reach slightly exceeds his grasp on the circus-themed “The Flying Wallendas.” The Big To-Do’s moody and atmospheric counterpart Go-Go Boots would soon follow, and any attempts to reconcile the shared provenance of these two very distinct albums makes the band’s prudent decision to release them separately seem especially wise in hindsight.