After more than two decades together, 38 Special is still playing more than 100 shows per year. And at every one of them, thousands of audience members are completely blindsided by the power and muscle of the band's performance. When we come out, people are like, 'Whoa! It's like a freight train rolling over them says vocalist/guitarist Don Barnes. While most associate the group with its arena-rock '80s pop smashes, these days the bands harder edge is what is immediately noticeable. Barnes says it’s all about maintaining the intensity that they deliver in their live shows. So when the group went in to record Drivetrain (July 27, Sanctuary Records), its first full studio album in years, it sought to capture that live energy on disc. And as a result, 38 Special, over twenty-five years later, has never sounded so powerful and in your face. Having had its share of success in the pop realm - selling some 15 million albums - the group sought to make this album all about attitude. It sounds rude, Barnes says, and it was meant to. While it's been years since the last full 38 Special studio record, its not as if the band has been dormant. Far from it. In addition to its intensely rigorous touring schedule every year, the group wrote the complete soundtrack and performed music for the film Super Troopers (the Drivetrain song, Trooper With an Attitude, first appeared in the film). In addition to cutting a Christmas album in 2001, they contributed a track to a Hank Williams Jr. tribute disc, after delivering an explosive live set, 1999s Live at Sturgis (available on Sanctuary Records as a DVD and companion CD). Van Zant, the brother of late Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman Ronnie Van Zant, and Barnes co-founded the band in its hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, nearly three decades ago. In its early days, the band built its reputation with its brand of Southern boogie and blues-rock, before transforming into a more arena-rock-friendly style. In its second decade, the band scored big with a slew of hits, including such rockers as Caught Up in You,Hold on Loosely,If I’d Been the One, and “ockin’ into the Night. Since 1975, the band has released more than 15 albums and from the start, theyve toured relentlessly. And the magics still there, says Van Zant. It's a high I can't describe to you. It’s almost like flying. When I walk up those steps to that stage and hear that audience roar, sometimes I feel like Don and I don't even have to sing, because the crowds are so vocal. Says Barnes, We’ve always carried an attitude that we’re going out there to win and God help whoever has to follow us, you know? We’ve never taken a backseat to anyone. We take the crowd for a ride and try to end up triumphant every night. And since we’ve had the good fortune to have a lot of hit songs over the years, we just line 'em up and shoot 'em down. By the end of the show, they're completely exhausted along with us. And it should be no time before those fans are singing every word to the tracks that compose Drivetrain. Some listening advice from Van Zant: The way to play this disc is to turn it up to 10, and get ready to take the ride.