Patterson Hood, Kelly Hogan Sing "Little Star"

The song from the upcoming Patterson Hood solo album was written with Vic Chesnutt in mind.

“I co-wrote this song with my dear friend Kelly Hogan, who also came in to sing it with me," The Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood says of "Come Back Little Star."

"She began the lyrics as a song for our late dear friend Vic Chesnutt and I re-wrote it with the intention of her recording it for her album. She ended up letting me put it on my album and it's a highlight to me.”

Hogan joins him on the lovely piano ballad, which is available here for download. While it's as serious as anything on recent Truckers' albums, he shows a lighter toucher and the track from his upcoming album, Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance, due out September 11. The album includs performances by all the Truckers, producer David Barbe, his father - famed Muscle Shoals bassist, David Hood, and Scott Danbom and Will Johnson from Centro-matic.

The songs on the album emerged from an attempt to write a semi-fictional novel about a rough year in his 20s. The novel didn't happen, but it helped the narrative-oriented Hood find a way to turn some of the stories into songs. "There has always been a lot of me in all of the albums we've done, but usually semi-disguised as character sketches and stories," he says. "But the first person narrative in this one is pretty firmly rooted in autobiography, albeit in two dramatically differing time periods.”