Alt-southern-rockers Drive-By Truckers [ tickets ] have announced an October headlining slate following the band's impending return to the studio to work on a new album.

The group will finish off a handful of July and August gigs--including Saturday's (7/28) show in Chattanooga, TN--before heading into the studio. Following the planned recording sessions, the group heads back out on the road for what frontman Patterson Hood has termed "The Dirt Underneath Tour"--mostly acoustic affairs, as opposed to the band's normal hard-rocking live sound.

The next phase of "Dirt Underneath" kicks off Oct. 12 in Birmingham, AL. All 14 shows on the trip will follow the acoustic format, aside from the band's Oct. 14 appearance at the Big State Festival in College Station, TX, which takes place on the grounds of the Texas World Speedway racetrack.

For the band's eighth studio album, Drive-By Truckers will check into Chase Park Transductions Studios in Athens, GA, to work with noted local David Barbe (R.E.M., Sugar). The band expects to feature contributions from keyboardist Spooner Oldham on the still-untitled effort, which is tentatively scheduled for an early 2008 release date on the New West label.

The band will work on the new album without the help of recently departed guitarist/vocalist Jason Isbell, who split with the band in April. "We all are wishing him nothing but the absolute best on every step that plays before him," Hood wrote at the time in a posting on the band's website