Old 97's

Mission Accomplished

originally published October 1, 2008

These days it�s pretty easy being Rhett Miller. So easy that he�s often a little embarrassed by it. �I shouldn�t be telling you this, but I�m sitting here by the pool while I�m doing this interview,� says Miller rather sheepishly at the beginning of his phone interview with Flagpole from a stop in Southern California.

But if anyone has earned the warmth of the sun and a dip in the pool, it�s Miller and his bandmates the Old 97�s. For the last 14 years and seven studio albums, Miller and company have perfected their brand of country-tinged, three-chord rock that has left audiences breathless all over the world. These days the band is a finely tuned performance machine that runs and sounds like a million bucks, and, according to Miller, it�s most evident on their new album Blame It on Gravity (New West Records).

"I love this new record so much, and I think the band is in a really good place," says Miller. That good place Miller speaks of is a place where sad songs sound happy and the happy songs chime with guitars that ring out like a new morning. For Miller and company, Blame It on Gravity was less the work of a veteran band kicking back and going through the motions and more of a labor of love.

"We've had records that were easier to make, and we've had records that were harder to make. This album took a while to make, but we never felt bogged down by it. It was a great feeling all the way through," says Miller.

The passion and optimism that is apparent in Miller�s voice is palatable; so much so, that when the inevitable questions about his solo career (he has released three solo albums) arise, Miller speaks of his other job with a tinge of regret.

"I don't think I could be in the band if I knew I couldn't make solo records," says Miller. The separation between what Miller does in his solo career and what he does with the Old 97�s is, for Miller at least, a byproduct of the democracy of the band.

"I keep writing songs that I know the rest of the band won't do, so it's nice to have a place to put those songs," he says.

Solo career aside, Blame It on Gravity remains a high energy, rootsy blend of rock and roll and country. But don�t call it alt-country. For Miller, the tag is a mixed blessing.

"I've had to deal with [the alt-country tag] for so long, and obviously it's annoying in a lot of ways. It's reductive and it doesn't take into account all of our influences, but at the same time, it helped us coming up and gave people an 'in' so they could discover our band. So, I can't hate it, but at the same time it gets old."

The catch-22 of being lumped in with the No Depression set aside, what the Old 97�s do isn�t alt-country. In fact, the band sounds less in line with a singer/songwriter trying to approximate the Dustbowl Ballads of Woody Guthrie and more like the bright and chiming folk-rock of The Byrds mixed with the drawl and grit of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It�s a comparison that Miller welcomes a bit more eagerly than the alt-country tag.

"All of the great bands that came out in the '60s, '70s and '80s weren't labeled alt-country. If Tom Petty came out today, he'd be labeled as alt-country. The Beatles were a freakin' skiffle band, are they alt-country?" asks Miller.

But instead of worrying about the labels attached to their music, the Old 97�s are more worried about the music itself. Live, the band�s simple rock and roll sound becomes revelatory. This is music played the old fashioned way, with fire in their bellies and their hearts on their sleeves. It's perfect music for an imperfect world, and it�s exactly what Miller envisions it as.

"We never wanted to be a bar band that had no substance, but at the same time we want people to go out and bond with each other, to be stupid, to dance and to make out. That's my job. My job isn't to make some big political statement," Miller says.

If the Old 97�s job is creating life-affirming music without worrying about politics, then mission accomplished.

Jason Bugg

WHO: Charlie Louvin, Old 97�s>
WHERE: Georgia Theatre
WHEN: Wednesday, Oct. 1st
HOW MUCH: $16 (advance), $18 (door)

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