Old 97's

One of alt-country’s most resilient acts, the Old 97's fuse power-pop tunefulness with traditional country textures, grounded by Ken Bethea’s unwavering guitar twang and Rhett Miller’s expressive singing, whose accounts of romantic missteps strike an ideal balance between longing and bravado. The group first captured national attention via their sophomore release, Wreck Your Life, issued in 1995, whereas their first major-label outing, 1997’s Too Far to Care, intensified the rock energy and sharpened the melodic punch. Although greeted with favorable notices and sustained grassroots loyalty, the quartet never crossed into broad commercial breakthrough, prompting a return to independent labels throughout the 2000s. Undeterred, the Old 97's emerged as alt-country’s most durable survivors, sustaining high-voltage concerts and issuing vigorous albums such as the cheeky 2014 set Most Messed Up, the energetic yet reflective 2020 effort Twelfth, and the freewheeling, wide-ranging 2024 collection American Primitive.

Rhett Miller and Murry Hammond first joined forces in 1989 when Miller recruited Hammond to produce his initial solo outing, Mythologies. Though six years Hammond’s junior, Miller already showed tireless commitment, working Dallas clubs with a mixture of folk and British-inflected pop. He also revealed narrative skill, having won a creative-writing scholarship to Sarah Lawrence College. A year after Mythologies appeared, the pair reunited inside the short-lived Sleepy Heroes.

Even though the Sleepy Heroes issued only one album before dissolving, their blend of pop and Texas twang helped seed the sound of the Old 97's. Building on that foundation, Miller and Hammond enlisted lead guitarist Ken Bethea to cut a demo at Cedar Creek studio in Austin. Drummer Philip Peeples joined soon afterward, and Hammond’s boyhood fascination with trains supplied the band’s name, drawn from the country ballad “Wreck of the Old 97.” With the lineup complete, the Old 97's delivered their debut, Hitchhike to Rhome, in 1994. The record earned strong reviews and started to assemble an alt-country audience that grew further with the follow-up, Wreck Your Life. Released in 1995 on the fledgling Bloodshot Records—a label that would also introduce Neko Case and Ryan Adams to alt-country—the album positioned the Old 97's as a crisp, wide-ranging country-rock unit fronted by a charismatic, photogenic singer. The resulting attention secured a deal with Elektra Records, which aimed to convert the band’s cult reputation into mainstream success.

The Old 97's debuted on Elektra in 1997 with Too Far to Care, a robust album that reconciled the group’s Texas roots with pop sensibilities. Numerous outlets hailed them as alt-country frontrunners, and the band toured relentlessly, appearing on that summer’s Lollapalooza bill and sharing stages with Whiskeytown on a series of No Depression-sponsored shows. Two years later, 1999’s Fight Songs supplied another sleek, hook-driven collection that enabled the quartet to fill 1,500-capacity rooms on subsequent tours.

By then Miller had relocated to Los Angeles and discarded the heavy, ’50s-style spectacles once central to his persona. He and Hammond also began playing occasional shows as the informal side project the Ranchero Brothers, though no album materialized. Instead they refocused on the Old 97's, issuing another pop-leaning record, 2001’s Satellite Rides. Miller then stepped away briefly to record the solo power-pop album The Instigator, released in late 2002. A stretch of relative quiet followed, as the members lived in separate cities and several started families.

The break concluded in 2004 with Drag It Up, whose supporting tour was documented on the double-disc live set Alive & Wired. Miller resumed solo work with 2006’s The Believer, on which he explored string and orchestral textures. The Old 97's regrouped in the studio in 2008, convening in their hometown of Dallas to recapture the vitality of earlier recordings. The strategy succeeded, and Blame It on Gravity yielded some of the band’s strongest material in years. While touring in support, Murry Hammond began his own solo career, collecting vintage gospel numbers and railroad imagery on I Don’t Know Where I’m Going But I’m on My Way. Miller also found time for a self-titled solo album in 2009, arriving one year before the Old 97's’ ninth studio record, The Grand Theatre, Vol. 1. Conceived as a double album, the project continued with the companion volume The Grand Theatre, Vol. 2 in mid-2011.

In 2012 the band issued an archival release through Omnivore Records—an expanded, remastered edition of Too Far to Care that added a bonus disc of pre-studio demos. Those demos also appeared separately on vinyl as They Made a Monster: The Too Far to Care Demos. The same year, Omnivore produced a limited Record Store Day EP containing two 1996 tracks cut with Waylon Jennings; it was reissued in 2013 simply as Old 97's & Waylon Jennings. In 2014 the group delivered their first album for ATO Records, the incendiary Most Messed Up, and continued mining their catalog with Omnivore via a remixed, remastered, and expanded version of Hitchhike to Rhome.

Near the end of 2016 the Old 97's announced Graveyard Whistling, released by ATO the following February. The album featured Brandi Carlile’s guest vocals on “Good with God” and songwriting contributions from Nicole Atkins and Butch Walker. November 2018 brought both Rhett Miller’s solo album The Messenger and the band’s first holiday collection, Love the Holidays, each issued on ATO. After enduring serious personal setbacks—Philip Peeples hospitalized for weeks following a skull fracture, Ken Bethea undergoing spinal surgery after losing motor control in one hand, and Rhett Miller quitting alcohol—the members marked their endurance and good fortune on their twelfth studio album, the aptly named Twelfth, released in 2020.

In September 2022 Miller’s eighth solo studio album, the playfully off-kilter The Misfit, appeared on ATO. Two months later, filmmaker James Gunn premiered the seasonal Disney+ spinoff The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. The Old 97's participated, contributing the new holiday song “I Don’t Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here),” co-written by Gunn and Miller and performed by the group in alien makeup. They also backed Kevin Bacon on “Here It Is, Christmastime,” a track originally recorded for Love the Holidays. Departing from their usual extensive pre-production, the Old 97's recorded 2024’s American Primitive by entering the studio with producer Tucker Martine and tracking a dozen songs with minimal rehearsal. One song appears twice, closing the album with an acoustic reprise of “Falling Down.” The record also includes guest spots from former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck and Young Fresh Fellows/Minus 5 leader Scott McCaughey.