In the 2014 song “Longer Than You’ve Been Alive,” singer and songwriter Rhett Miller lets himself get “self referential” to address the heady highs and sobering lows of playing rock and roll across a lifetime. His vehicle: Old 97’s, a band formed in Dallas in 1992 named for a folk song but known for its incendiary, rave-up country-tinged music and clever, relatable songwriting. Miller sings about the infinite hotel hallways and dodgy green rooms, the lapses of judgment, the booze, the search for love, and the “mysterious drive” that’s kept this quartet together for more than thirty years.
“Now I've made a living out of shaking my ass
And if you offer me an office, I'd have to pass
But our jobs are all jobs, and sometimes they suck
I love what I do, and I've had pretty good luck”
Upon sitting down with Miller before a show at The Burl in Lexington, KY in August, I noted that this four-minute song told me possibly more about his realistic view of his career than many interviews I’ve done. And yet Miller’s an erudite and charming fellow with a lot to add and many pursuits, even beyond the release of the 13th Old 97’s album, American Primitive.
“The level of hustle is real,” Miller says in Episode 294. “Like, at the moment, you know, I've got my songwriting retreat. I'm teaching a course in songwriting at The New School (in New York). I am doing my Wheels Off podcast. I'm writing a book proposal. I am working on a solo record. Obviously, the 97s have a new record, and we're touring like crazy. I'm sure I'm leaving some things off.”
Folks have called him a renaissance man, but he started like so many others, as a teenager with some profound mental health struggles who found songwriting to be healing if not life saving. “I've got an expression in this songwriting book I'm working on right now,” he says. “It's a machine that processes trauma. And for me, that's what it was. That's what songwriting has always been. And I got better, and I started doing gigs, and people rewarded me by paying me $50 and booking me again. And it just got better and better, and here I am now, 40 years after my first live performance in front of audiences. And it's great. I love it. It's been a very rewarding life.”
Rhett’s a seventh generation Texan born in Austin in 1970. He traces his musical awakening to a months-long stretch he spent in the hospital as a kid with an inner ear disease. He was, fortunately, able to listen to and enjoy LP records while he recovered, including a life-altering Joan Jett album. After moving to Dallas and turning to singing and songwriting as his main pursuit, Miller formed a power pop band with his old friend Murry Hammond on bass. That evolved into the Old 97’s with guitarist Ken Bethea and drummer Philip Peeples.
After a couple of albums for small labels, including Chicago’s Bloodshot, Old 97’s found themselves identified as one of the key bands in the new alt-country movement, alongside Whiskeytown, Son Volt, Wilco, the Bottle Rockets, and BR549. Indeed they became a hot property when the major labels briefly saw hard twanging rock and roll as the next big thing. They wound up releasing several albums with Elektra Records, and we talk about the pros and cons of that chapter. In the years since, they’ve recorded for New West, Omnivore and ATO, their current home.
They’ve never had hits and never won Grammys. And Miller and I agree they’ve been sometimes overlooked by the Nashville-centric Americana establishment. A future Lifetime Achievement Award would be more than appropriate. Because Old 97’s have legions of lifelong fans and a durable reputation as a consistently great live act. They are journeymen and iron men in their chosen field. You’ll learn a lot about how they keep their interests aligned and their show on the road in this entertaining field trip episode.
