The Old 97’s have a lot to celebrate. Not only was the band honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at last year’s Americana Music Awards for their long career and contributions to the Americana music scene but they have the rare bragging rights to remaining together with all original members for over 30 years now.
“We’ve been trying to come up with another band that’s been together and active as long as we have with the same four original members and we haven’t really come up with anybody,” says singer Rhett Miller. “Somebody said maybe Phish.”
The Old 97’s will be performing at the Heights Theater on Thursday, May 28 with opener Caleb Caudle. Miller, who just wrapped up a solo tour which also stopped by Houston, is excited to get back out with his band of brothers.
After more than three decades together, comparing his solo runs to the full band tours sounds much like a family dynamic. “If I’m out by myself I miss them and then if I’m with them for a while, I get sick of them,” laughs Miller of his relationship with bandmates Murry Hammond, Ken Bethea and Philip Peeples.
“We are pretty lucky. It’s funny, I wonder sometimes if we had had a lot of success if that would have been a problem. I can’t imagine that it would have helped in some ways except our bank accounts, it seems like more money, more problems. We made just the right amount, we made just enough to get by, not enough to get rich and go crazy.”
The band has been part of a documentary film about their impressive career with a crew following them around for performances and interviews. Part of the project included a special hometown show where the filmmakers captured the band in Dallas at the historic Sons of Hermann Hall performing their 1997 album, Too Far to Care.
“We didn’t think of it ourselves although we had people on our team for years saying it would be a good thing,” says Miller of the decision to make the documentary. The band was approached by a director and production company who secured funding for the film.
“Thank God because if it was up to me I wouldn’t do it. I don’t care. I’m more worried about what’s next and what’s right now but it’s very sweet actually. Some of the archival footage that I’ve seen and a lot of the stories that we’ve told and I had forgotten so much of them. It’s been a really sweet process.”
Miller says the documentary and the nostalgia surrounding it have inspired the band to bring their best musical selves to the stage.
Staying together so long is a rare achievement in entertainment or in any sphere of life but the Old 97’s had the good fortune of not only meshing well as friends and bandmates but knowing how to share songwriting credits, responsibilities and the different stages of life.
“We share the publishing credit which we learned from REM 30 plus years ago,” says Miller, who along with bassist Hammond writes the majority of the band’s songs.
“We were trying to make it to where those problems didn’t tear us apart and it’s so funny that 30-plus years ago, we were really already thinking about longevity and perseverance that has now become the defining quality of our band. We are all in this together.”
Together the band has released 13 studio albums and are currently in the process of finalizing their newest album, recorded at Sonic Ranch Studio in Tornillo, Texas. This marks the third time the band has recorded at this immersive studio which Miller describes as being on the moon. They previously recorded Too Far to Care and their 2017 release Graveyard Whistling.
“I think it’s going to be a very fun record,” says Miller of the band’s upcoming release. Miller can’t help but compare the new songs to their 2024 release American Primitive and his solo album A Lifetime Of Riding By Night, released last year.
“Part of the reason I wanted the new record to be fun is because I feel like American Primitive had some moments of rocking but it was a little thorny and a little sad. Certainly my solo record that Murry produced was very introspective, sad, restrained and all these things that I don’t normally do so my main priority for the new record for the Old 97’s was just to give something fun and entertaining.”
For Miller, songwriting consumes him. He not only is constantly writing for himself and his band but also has a very active Substack, teaches a weekly songwriting class at The New School in Manhattan and hosts a yearly songwriting retreat in the Catskills called Songwriting is Magic.
Miller has also written the children’s books The Baby Changing Station and No More Poems! He is currently working on publishing a book through St. Martin’s Press on how to write songs.
“I just love the craft of it and I love the community around it. I think it’s such a sweet thing for people to be doing. It’s like a little gift we give to the universe every time we write a song and the universe seems like it needs that now more than ever.”
When asked how the process of teaching has impacted his writing, Miller admits it has really forced him to put his money where his mouth is and spend a significant amount of time doing what he tells his students to do, revisit and revise.
“This new record that we’re making right now has some songs on it, and some of the best songs on it are songs that I almost abandoned and then I pushed myself to go back and do a little extra work on them and they are so good now so I’m learning as I teach.”
Songwriting and being Texan often seem to go hand in hand as the Lone Star State has produced some of history’s strongest songwriters. When asked about his awareness and place in this long line of giants Miller describes his personal progression with appreciating what Texas has to offer.
Since his youth he was drawn to the work of Buddy Holly, an influence he feels in his “frantic right hand strumming and high energy” to this day. “Texas influence is a weird one because for me, I’m a seventh generation Texan and I grew up in the midst of it all to the point where I kind of rejected it,” says Miller describing himself as an “Anglophile”, a strong component to the band’s groundbreaking sound and rock and roll root to their sound.
“It wasn’t until my 20s that I really appreciated the heritage that we are a part of. Something about the region, it’s like being a Basque or something. It’s such a strong region with such an emphasis on freedom and I think that comes through in the songwriters.”
At this point in his career Miller has also been embracing his voice, a tool he has had to relearn to use following surgery and vocal rehabilitation in 2024 following removal of a polyp and cyst.
“There’s a certain feeling of powerlessness when you’re recovering from surgery like that and you just have to remind yourself that it’s a necessary period of recovery. It was a little scary but when I came out of that period, it definitely made me excited to write and perform and appreciate it more.”
Being back in the studio with his band and back on the road, Miller is feeling good and following the Willie Nelson model to just keep on going.
“It’s gonna be a lot of fun. The Old 97’s-we are firing on all cylinders right now I’m going to really spend a lot of time thinking about the set list trying to make it a true crowd-pleasing experience for everybody.”
The Old 97’s will perform on Thursday, May 28 at 8 p.m. at The Heights Theater, 339 W. 19th. For more information visit old97s.com
