Give Your Hard Times Some Vacation
“Mercy Buckets” reflects the tangled, messy beauty of friendship.
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This week’s obvious song choice would be “The Thanksgiving Filter,” but I gotta admit, I don’t have much to say about Patterson Hood’s “ode to surviving the ones you love.” I think the last time I spent Thanksgiving with my family was in 1997. Flying on Thanksgiving is so unpleasant that this has become a friend-focused holiday for me.
I got to thinking about DBT songs that evoke family, friendship, or being thankful, and that led me to “Mercy Buckets,” the album-closing anthem on Go-Go Boots. Patterson says this song is “as close to the Sweet Soul Music I've always loved as I'm capable of writing.” It’s a perfect companion piece to “Everybody Needs Love,” the song by Muscle Shoals Sound musician Eddie Hinton that DBT covers on the same album.