The Drive-By Truckers announced today that they will release their next studio album on March 16, 2010 through ATO Records. The album, entitled The Big To-Do, will be their first for ATO and is according to singer-songwriter and guitarist Patterson Hood “very much a rock album” and “very melodic and more rocking than anything we’ve done since disc 2 of Southern Rock Opera.”

Hood also states, talking about the inspiration for the album, that “We’ve often set our songs and albums in different periods of time, but this one finds us directly in our present. Riding all through the highways of America (and Europe) trying to make sense of a very different world than the one we grew up in” and “I don’t write a lot of songs on the road, but I did more than usual on this album and many more were inspired by or set there, either in a literal sense or something I witnessed or heard about while I was out there.”

As we reported earlier, the Drive-By Truckers have already announced a couple of US tour dates during January and February, but they will announce a full supporting tour for the album in early 2010.

Tracklist:
1. Daddy Learned To Fly
2. The Fourth Night of My Drinking
3. Birthday Boy
4. Drag the Lake Charlie
5. The Wig He Made Her Wear
6. You Got Another
7. This Fucking Job
8. Get Downtown
9. After the Scene Dies
10. (It’s Gonna Be) I Told You So
11. Santa Fe
12. The Flying Wallendas
13. Eyes Like Glue
14. Girls Who Smoke (bonus track – vinyl only)