Description
There aren’t many rock bands more solid and consistent than the Old 97’s. Since the band formed in 1992 and started playing the Dallas bar circuit, they haven’t had a lineup change. It’s been the same four guys the whole time, namely singer and guitarist Rhett Miller, bassist and backing vocalist Murry Hammond, lead guitarist Ken Bethea and drummer Philip Peeples
They’ve released a new album every two to four years and have never significantly altered their sound, traipsing from rowdy country (1994’s Hitchhike to Rhome) to high-octane twang-rock (1997’s Too Far to Care) to well-crafted roots-pop (2001’s Satellite Rides) over the years. Along the way, the Old 97’s have always sounded like the Old 97’s—a dusty collision of Miller’s comely Texas drawl and hell-raising lyrics, Hammond’s bouncy bass lines and tight-lipped harmonies, Bethea’s searing solos and Peeples’ shuffling beats.
They were one of the very best bands of the late-‘90s alt-country bubble, and now, they’ve outlasted many of their contemporaries, too. On their twelfth full-length studio album, Twelfth, the Old 97’s dish up another dozen cuts of jagged roots-rock that further cement them as masters of the tunefully twangy.
