Drive-By Truckers play Revolution Music Room on Saturday with singer/songwriter James McMurtry as the opening act. The show time is 8:30 p.m., and tickets for the 18-and-up concert are $25.

LITTLE ROCK — Before beginning an afternoon telephone interview from his home in Athens, Ga., Drive-By Truckers guitarist and singer Patterson Hood needs a cup of coffee. It’s understandably. The co-founder of the best Southern rock ‘n’ roll band currently playing today has had an exhausting year. Besides DBT’s continued touring behind the band’s seventh album, 2008’s Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, Hood has also toured in support of his second solo album, Murdering Oscar (and other love songs), released this summer.

And the Truckers — Hood along with co-founder, guitarist and vocalist Mike Cooley, guitarist and pedal steel player John Neff, bassist and vocalist Shonna Tucker, drummer Brad Morgan, and keyboardist Jay Gonzalez — have been responsible for releasing three albums this year: Booker T. Jones’ Potato Hole, released in April with DBT serving as the legend’s backing band; Live in Austin TX (Austin City Limits), a live DVD and CD combo; and The Fine Print (A Collection of Oddities and Rarities 2003-2008).

On top of it all, Hood and his wife welcomed their second child, and a “handsome little devil,” Emmett Martin (named after Hood’s great-grandfather), into the world in early September.

But a handful of late October dates — known as The Righteous Path Tour 2009 — will mark the end of the touring cycle behind Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, a hell-raising, Southern gothic rock ‘n’ roll ride filled with country ballads and straight-up rockers, that Hood considers “one of our two best records” along with 2003’s Decoration Day.

“The songs from Creation’s Dark have really held up to me,” Hood said. “I probably like the record as much or more now as when it first came out. I’m real proud of that one. Brighter Than Creation’s Dark — to me the songwriting is particularly strong for us it seems like. I like Cooley’s songs on Brighter Than Creation’s Dark. I’ve always loved his songs, and he added an extra abundance of songs and that was nice.”

So after a busy 2008 and 2009, perhaps 2010 will mean some extended time off? Hardly. Following the success of the tough, smart, amusing Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, an album balancing Hood’s rock muscle with Cooley’s good ol’ boy tendencies and Tucker’s world-weary anthems, DBT is preparing to unleash two albums of original work in 2010 on their new record label ATO Records.

“We’ve pretty much recorded two albums,” said Hood, noting the band spent a slice of the year in the recording studio, working with longtime producer David Barbe. “The first [album] is pretty much done, and the second one is probably 80 percent done. It’ll be done by the time the first one comes out.”

Although nothing is set in stone, tentative plans are to release the first album in March with the second album being released later in the year.

“It’s definitely two different records,” Hood said. “Each one kind of has its own identity so no need for a schizophrenic, single record thing.

“I’d like to see them come out about six months apart while we are still touring for the first one. The first one is going to be the big rock record anyway, and it’s kind of the one the [touring] show will be built around. The second one is a little more perspective and weird and swampy and all that. So it won’t hurt to be touring behind the rock record when it comes out. It’ll kind of add a new dimension to the show. We’re still trying to hash all of that out.”

And while Hood and Cooley’s tunes have always been the centerpiece of any DBT record (Former member Jason Isbell was an integral songwriter on the albums Decoration Day, The Dirty South, and A Blessing and a Curse.), Tucker’s newest tunes have Hood excited.

“Wait ‘til you hear her new stuff,” he said. “She’s grown by leaps and bounds on the new album. As great as I think she was on the last record, she’s made a stunning leap. We’re really, really excited about it.”

Just as recording and working as the backing band on “The Great Lady of Soul” Bettye LaVette’s solo album The Scene of the Crime in 2007 influenced Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, working with famed R&B and soul multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and Booker T. and the MGs frontman Jones in September 2008 inspired the band when it came time to record their new material.

“I think the Booker record has probably affected the next Truckers’ record because we recorded it last September, and we’ve done a handful of shows with him this year,” Hood said. “That’s been an amazing experience. He’s taught us a lot about musical structure because it’s a record without lyrics yet it’s a very lyrical record. The songs kind of have stories even if they are just instrumental. When we were recording the record, he would tell us a story before we would record the song. It was amazing how that affected the sound of the record, and how it affected the way we performed and the way we played. I think the things we learned from that will be affecting our next record. It made us a better band. And he’s just the sweetest guy in the world. He’s great to play with. It was quite an education.”

Working with artists such as LaVette and Jones has only fueled Hood’s desire to work with other artists, with a wish list including country artist Tom T. Hall (“That would be a dream come true.”), a pairing of Jones and former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant, and even ‘80s pop superstars Hall and Oates.

“We’re all huge Hall and Oates fans, everyone of us,” Hood said. “It’s not [a guilty pleasure] at all. I came to terms with it years ago. ... The years when it was out of style and uncool to be into them I was a grand offender. Now, everyone realizes how great they are, and it’s like, ‘Duh.’”

But before any new collaborations comes the last dates of The Righteous Path Tour 2009, a string of shows that might be the best of any of the shows behind Brighter Than Creation’s Dark.

“The shows this summer have been some of our very best shows,” Hood said. “I don’t really know why except maybe we’ve had enough time off. It ought to be a real good run, especially since this is the last little leg of a two-year run and coming like it does after a month off. We should be good and wound up.”