Old 97's

Certain Songs #1392: Old 97’s – “The One”

December 6, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Blame it on Gravity
Year: 2008

Then Rhett Miller started making solo albums. Which made sense: he’s always been prolific as hell, and he wanted to make music outside of the established sound / groove of the Old 97’s.

And so starting with 2002’s The Instigator, Miller has spent his time alternating solo albums with Old 97’s albums , and in fact he has just released his most recent solo album and an Old 97’s Christmas album (neither of which I’ve heard as of this writing), so as far as his fans go, he’s never disappeared.

Certain Songs #1391: Old 97’s – “Singular Girl”

December 5, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Satellite Rides (Bonus Disc)
Album: 2001

“I didn’t know you were up to the Old 97s,” a visibly delighted Rox said when she read the post for “Timebomb.” And despite the fact that the stars have never aligned for us to see them in concert — and they just played in L.A. a couple of nights ago, but we had a long-planned party that night — they’re probably one of her favorite artists, so she was interested in what other songs I was writing about.

So, obviously she was fine with things like “Barrier Reef” and “Murder (Or a Heart Attack),” she was dismayed that I was skipping “Oppenheimer” — just missed the cut — and I had planned not to write about “Singular Girl,” until I got to the version on Rhett Miller’s solo album. “But it’s got one of the greatest lines ever,” she pointed out, and as we both repeated that line at the same time, I realized that I needed to write about it after all.

Certain Songs #1390: Old 97’s – “Question”

December 4, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Satellite Rides
Year: 2001

And now we come to what is unquestionably my favorite Old 97’s song. Which is ironic on several levels, the most immediate one being that it’s just Rhett Miller all by his lonesome on an acoustic guitar. So I guess that it’s more like my favorite Rhett Miller song, which just adds to the irony in that Rhett remade it on his second solo album, 2006’s The Believer, but with a more full arrangement — keyboards and strings — and it doesn’t work nearly as well.

But man does it work on “Satellite Rides,” not only sticking out like a sore thumb in between the full-tilt rockers, but also in tone: there’s no distance from Rhett Miller and the simple proposal story he’s telling.

Certain Songs #1389: Old 97’s – “What I Wouldn’t Do”

December 3, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Satellite Rides
Year: 2001

The thing about Satellite Rides was that it was almost an embarrassment of riches. Nearly every single song was a winner, from the power chord opener “King of All The World,” and running winners like “Rollerskate Skinny” and “Designs on You.”

Hell, even the outtakes were lit: the bonus-CD only “Singular Girl” is as good as anything on the record. And smack damn in the middle were a pair of songs that pretty much made the record for me — tomorrow’s subject, “Question” and the insanely hooky “What I Wouldn’t Do.”

Certain Songs #1388: Old 97’s – “Buick City Complex”

December 2, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Satellite Rides
Year: 2001

Of course, by 2001, Rhett Miller wasn’t the only high-profile alt-country bandleader who had turned his sights towards rock ‘n’ roll. Jeff Tweedy had been going in that direction since Being There and was to deconstruct everything on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Ryan Adams had been moving the doomed Whiskeytown away on the electic Pneumonia and of course, went full classic rock on Gold.

In between was Rhett Miller, who followed up Fight Songs with the best record the Old 97’s ever made, 2001’s Satellite Rides, an album that wasn’t nearly as high profile as the news-hook records that both Tweedy and Adams made, but was equally as good. And in fact, I think the best songs on Satellite Rides are probably better than the best songs on Gold or even YHF.

Certain Songs #1387: Old 97’s – “Nineteen”

December 1, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fight Songs
Year: 1999

“Nineteen” as Rhett Miller observed at the outset of what feels like an incredibly autobiographical song, even if it isn’t, “is not the age of reason.”

But of course, you don’t realize that shit when you’re nineteen. Hell, looking back, I’m pretty sure I was unreasonable at twenty-nine, much less nineteen. So when Rhett Miller followed up his initial observation with “I didn’t have a reason / to setting you free,” it makes total sense, though his tone is neither anger nor sorrow, but rather wistful resignation.

Certain Songs #1386: Old 97’s – “Murder (or a Heart Attack)”

November 30, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fight Songs
Year: 1999

My favorite song on Fight Songs isn’t really a fight song, or even a love song really, and it sure as hell isn’t alt-country either.

What it is, however, is a song that combines both Rhett Miller’s penchant for clever lyrics and his ability to write a plaintive melody line that sticks in your head.

Certain Songs #1385: Old 97’s – “Jagged”

November 29, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fight Songs
Year: 1999

If the Old 97’s breakthrough album, 1997’s Too Far To Care, was both an amplification and expansion of their alt-country roots, then the follow-up, 1999’s Fight Songs, was a conscious effort to break out of alt-country once and for all.

Instead, they moved more towards straight out rock ‘n’ roll, while still keeping one foot in the alt-country world, with the opening track on Fight Songs, “Jagged” as a near-perfect transition. As well as one of their very best songs.

Certain Songs #1384: Old 97’s – “Barrier Reef”

November 28, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Too Far To Care
Year: 1997

One of the most quotable songs in the whole Old 97’s canon, “Barrier Reef” is a winning mix of a huge-ass Ken Berthea guitar riff, a jaunty beat from drummer Phillip Peeples and a vocal from Rhett Miller that perfectly caught the ambivalence he was singing about.

And what was he so ambivalent about? As it turns out, a one-night stand that at least superficially went exactly the way he wanted it to go. Which was the problem.

Certain Songs #1383: Old 97’s – “Timebomb”

November 27, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Too Far To Care
Year: 1997

Hailing from Dallas, Texas, the Old 97’s have been putting their raucous spin on what we used to call alt-country for 25 years now.

Featuring ageless lead singer Stuart Ransom “Rhett” Miller II, a former teenaged songwriting prodigy who retains a gift for slightly dirty one-liners, and guitarist Ken Bethea, who alternates hooks and snarling leads, they’ve remained remarkably consistent during that time: you could pick up literally any Old 97’s album from any part of their career and walk away humming.