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Old 97's appreciation thread

oSuJeff97

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12549

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I dig "Bottle Rocket Baby".

If I had any criticism, it seems that since "Most Messed Up", they've been in the same vein.  It's probably my favorite kind of Old 97's vein - the raucous, light hearted, whimsical party vein.  But there hasn't been much of the vulnerable side of them lately, it seems.  I think that's what makes "Too Far to Care" so fucking perfect.  They're doing both at the same time.

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oSuJeff97

oSuJeff97 3435

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38 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I dig "Bottle Rocket Baby".

If I had any criticism, it seems that since "Most Messed Up", they've been in the same vein.  It's probably my favorite kind of Old 97's vein - the raucous, light hearted, whimsical party vein.  But there hasn't been much of the vulnerable side of them lately, it seems.  I think that's what makes "Too Far to Care" so fucking perfect.  They're doing both at the same time.

I've largely avoided the singles because I wanted to listen to everything at once in album form, but based on several interviews I've heard with Rhett, I think this album does delve into some of his conflicted feelings about his drug/booze days.

One thing that was interesting that he talked about on the live Stageit show where he played "Most Messed Up" was that was basically the time in his life where he started to feel the booze/weed was starting to take over a bit too much.  In fact, he said (right before playing it) that they don't play "The Disconnect" live any more because that song is basically "too autobiographical" which I thought was interesting. 

 

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12549

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I've largely avoided the singles because I wanted to listen to everything at once in album form, but based on several interviews I've heard with Rhett, I think this album does delve into some of his conflicted feelings about his drug/booze days.
One thing that was interesting that he talked about on the live Stageit show where he played "Most Messed Up" was that was basically the time in his life where he started to feel the booze/weed was starting to take over a bit too much.  In fact, he said (right before playing it) that they don't play "The Disconnect" live any more because that song is basically "too autobiographical" which I thought was interesting. 
 

Kind of a side bar, but I find interesting that Rhett has said in multiple interviews that his pot use was more problematic than booze. There’s nothing more eye roll inducing to me than someone who says “I’m sober, but I still smoke pot”.

I think it’s super admirable that he wasn’t really out of control, but he was concerned that he wouldn’t be available in a literal and figurative sense for his kids, and that’s why he quit.
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C-Man

C-Man 27411

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For anyone interested in tuning in.... Old 97's are playing the full album and doing a Q&A with fans on YouTube tonight at 8 p.m. Central.
New album drops tomorrow... I'll have to wait a few days for my Texas edition vinyl to show up from Waterloo....  


Is there a recording of this anywhere? Missed it due to family obligations. Would love to check it out. Looking forward to spinning the new album later today.
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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12549

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This is definitely a change up from the last couple.  The lead singles were a nice little slight of hand.

Not sure where it will land for me, but early impression (I haven't even finished the album) are favorable, and it kind of reminds me of Rhett solo albums in spots.

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oSuJeff97

oSuJeff97 3435

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8 hours ago, C-Man said:

 


Is there a recording of this anywhere? Missed it due to family obligations. Would love to check it out. Looking forward to spinning the new album later today.

 

Well it didn't really end up being a Q&A... I think I misunderstood what it was going to be. Basically they just played the album straight through and the band was on a live chat on the side... but of course there were like 20 posts a second so it was kind of hard to follow.

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oSuJeff97

oSuJeff97 3435

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2 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

This is definitely a change up from the last couple.  The lead singles were a nice little slight of hand.

Not sure where it will land for me, but early impression (I haven't even finished the album) are favorable, and it kind of reminds me of Rhett solo albums in spots.

For sure.

Also there is kind of a nostalgic vibe that I really dig... lots of name-checking mid-90s Dallas stuff, which is super cool. I'm sure the Dallas folks will dig that. I didn't live there but spent A LOT of time in Dallas in the mid-late 90s. (My best friend from OSU moved there after college and there was a long stretch where I was there at least once a month, if not more... I very nearly moved there in '98, but met my first wife and yada, yada, yada I still live in Tulsa, lol)

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C-Man

C-Man 27411

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8 minutes ago, oSuJeff97 said:

For sure.

Also there is kind of a nostalgic vibe that I really dig... lots of name-checking mid-90s Dallas stuff, which is super cool. I'm sure the Dallas folks will dig that. I didn't live there but spent A LOT of time in Dallas in the mid-late 90s. (My best friend from OSU moved there after college and there was a long stretch where I was there at least once a month, if not more... I very nearly moved there in '98, but met my first wife and yada, yada, yada I still live in Tulsa, lol)

Looking forward to listening to it.

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12549

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16 minutes ago, oSuJeff97 said:

For sure.

Also there is kind of a nostalgic vibe that I really dig... lots of name-checking mid-90s Dallas stuff, which is super cool. I'm sure the Dallas folks will dig that. I didn't live there but spent A LOT of time in Dallas in the mid-late 90s. (My best friend from OSU moved there after college and there was a long stretch where I was there at least once a month, if not more... I very nearly moved there in '98, but met my first wife and yada, yada, yada I still live in Tulsa, lol)

I think the 2nd half is really solid.  Bottle Rocket Baby is my early favorite, and I like it more hearing how it fits into the album between Our Year and Absence (What We've Got).

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oSuJeff97

oSuJeff97 3435

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1 minute ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I think the 2nd half is really solid.  Bottle Rocket Baby is my early favorite, and I like it more hearing how it fits into the album between Our Year and Absence (What We've Got).

Yeah.

My early favs are "This House Got Ghosts", "Confessional Boxing", and "Belmont Hotel."  Also both Murry songs are great.

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oSuJeff97

oSuJeff97 3435

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For my fellow Old 97's fans - Magnet Magazine did a podcast on the making of "Too Far to Care."

Rhett, Mury and Ken all participated. Great, interesting stuff, including acoustic versions of "Time Bomb" and "Barrier Reef" that Rhett recorded for the podcast:

https://magnetmagazine.com/2023/01/25/magnet-classics-podcast-the-real-story-behind-old-97s-too-far-to-care/

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C-Man

C-Man 27411

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Anybody else going to the shows this weekend? We are going Saturday night. The ice storm delayed Murray and Rhett both making it to town so they had to combine the Sons of Herman Hall shows into one show tonight at The Studio at the Factory.

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oSuJeff97

oSuJeff97 3435

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By the way - there are some other interesting episodes on that "Magnet classics" podcast... you can find them if you go the Magnet podcast on the podcast app.

They have one on Pete Yorn's musicforthemorningafter and Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend that I've listened to so far. Good stuff.

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8733

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2 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I think Rhett is quite literally a bit younger than Murray, too.  Not sure where Ken is agewise.

I know that Rhett’s 52, Murry is 56 (I believe), Ken is abou 55 (I believe), and Philip is about 54 to 55 or so.

Just like with the Stones, the other guys could go gray, but even though Mick is pushing 80, he can’t go gray. Rhett is the Mick of the Old 97s. 

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12549

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Just now, Napoleon said:

I know that Rhett’s 52, Murry is 56 (I believe), Ken is abou 55 (I believe), and Philip is about 54 to 55 or so.

Just like with the Stones, the other guys could go gray, but even though Mick is pushing 80, he can’t go gray. Rhett is the Mick of the Old 97s. 

Closer in age than I thought.  I remember Rhett referring to Murry as the "cool older professor type" in more than a few interviews as he discusses the formation of the band.

But your last statement is probably closer to the real explanation.

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Napoleon

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5 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Closer in age than I thought.  I remember Rhett referring to Murry as the "cool older professor type" in more than a few interviews as he discusses the formation of the band.

But your last statement is probably closer to the real explanation.

Rhett & Murry (for some reason it is spelled without an “a”) played together in a band before the Old 97s.

Rhett was about 19 to 20 and had done one year at Sarah Lawrence before coming back home and working the door at Terilli’s on Greenville Ave in Dallas.  Murry would have been about 23 to 24 at the time and 4 years is a lot when you are barely out of high school. 

In the summer/fall of ‘99, one of the few multi-sentence conversations that I have ever had with Murry was his mentioning that he was considering going back to school to get a degree in case the music thing didn’t work out so that he’d “have something to fall back on”. I didn’t laugh, but I also didn’t see him going back to Nacogdoches to get a degree.

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Napoleon

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Just now, Al_4_ISU said:

Ken's old enough to be my dad.

There were a lot of people at the show “old enough to be your dad”… and then this one teen in the front row.

 


By the way, your dad and his buddies can still make some noise.

 

Philip still wails on the drums, so I had to get him in that second video.

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C-Man

C-Man 27411

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On 2/7/2023 at 1:57 PM, Napoleon said:

Rhett & Murry (for some reason it is spelled without an “a”) played together in a band before the Old 97s.

Rhett was about 19 to 20 and had done one year at Sarah Lawrence before coming back home and working the door at Terilli’s on Greenville Ave in Dallas.  Murry would have been about 23 to 24 at the time and 4 years is a lot when you are barely out of high school. 

In the summer/fall of ‘99, one of the few multi-sentence conversations that I have ever had with Murry was his mentioning that he was considering going back to school to get a degree in case the music thing didn’t work out so that he’d “have something to fall back on”. I didn’t laugh, but I also didn’t see him going back to Nacogdoches to get a degree.

The Ranchero Brothers?

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8733

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15 minutes ago, C-Man said:

The Ranchero Brothers?

No, it was a rockabilly band or something…

KILLBILLY

Killbilly was a Dallas, Texas-based band active from 1987 to 1994, which described its music as being a mixture of bluegrass and punk.[1]Critics have variously described the band's style as a "fusion of bluegrass and shred metal",[2] and as "a genuine bluegrass band playing straight, fast and loud."[1]The Dallas Observer's Robert Wilonsky described the band as "irreplaceable" and their breakup in 1994 as the "end of an era".[3]

Killbilly
Origin Dallas, Texas
Genres Bluegrass music, punk rock
Years active 1987–1994
Labels Flying Fish Records, Crystal Clear Records
 
Past members Alan Wooley, Craig "Niteman" Taylor, Stephen Trued, Harris "Stealth" Kirby, Richard Hunter, Michael Schwedler, Rhett Miller, Murry Hammond, Mark Rubin, Danny Barnes

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killbilly#:~:text=Killbilly was a Dallas%2C Texas,mixture of bluegrass and punk.

 

”Ranchero Brothers” are Murry & Rhett playing (acoustic) guitars and singing without Ken & Philip. They do they own songs and covers and I think that Murry gets to sing lead on more than 20% of the songs. 

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C-Man

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7 hours ago, Napoleon said:

No, it was a rockabilly band or something…

KILLBILLY

Killbilly was a Dallas, Texas-based band active from 1987 to 1994, which described its music as being a mixture of bluegrass and punk.[1]Critics have variously described the band's style as a "fusion of bluegrass and shred metal",[2] and as "a genuine bluegrass band playing straight, fast and loud."[1]The Dallas Observer's Robert Wilonsky described the band as "irreplaceable" and their breakup in 1994 as the "end of an era".[3]

Killbilly
Origin Dallas, Texas
Genres Bluegrass music, punk rock
Years active 1987–1994
Labels Flying Fish Records, Crystal Clear Records
 
Past members Alan Wooley, Craig "Niteman" Taylor, Stephen Trued, Harris "Stealth" Kirby, Richard Hunter, Michael Schwedler, Rhett Miller, Murry Hammond, Mark Rubin, Danny Barnes

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killbilly#:~:text=Killbilly was a Dallas%2C Texas,mixture of bluegrass and punk.

 

”Ranchero Brothers” are Murry & Rhett playing (acoustic) guitars and singing without Ken & Philip. They do they own songs and covers and I think that Murry gets to sing lead on more than 20% of the songs. 

Not familiar with Killbilly. I did, however, see them as Ranchero Brothers a couple of times back in the late '90s/early '00s.

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12549

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On 2/7/2023 at 2:31 PM, Napoleon said:

There were a lot of people at the show “old enough to be your dad”… and then this one teen in the front row.

 

IMG_7910.MOV 69.71 MB · 0 downloads  


By the way, your dad and his buddies can still make some noise.

 

IMG_7928.MOV 394.19 MB · 0 downloads  

Philip still wails on the drums, so I had to get him in that second video.

This thread's had me listening to Old 97s on the way to the farm the past couple days, and I think Philip's drums are such a massive part of their sound.  Him and Murry as a rhythm section really do that rumbling train sound phenomenally.  The country in the Old 97s sound comes more from that than it does anywhere in Rhett's songwriting or singing.  Ken is like 50/50 between those twangy leads and crunchy riffs, but the rhythm section (especially Philip) is pure country on speed.

Edited by Al_4_ISU
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TexPx

TexPx 2327

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No, it was a rockabilly band or something…
KILLBILLY

Killbilly was a Dallas, Texas-based band active from 1987 to 1994, which described its music as being a mixture of bluegrass and punk.[1]Critics have variously described the band's style as a "fusion of bluegrass and shred metal",[2] and as "a genuine bluegrass band playing straight, fast and loud."[1]The Dallas Observer's Robert Wilonsky described the band as "irreplaceable" and their breakup in 1994 as the "end of an era".[3]

Killbilly
Origin Dallas, Texas
Genres Bluegrass music, punk rock
Years active 1987–1994
Labels Flying Fish Records, Crystal Clear Records
 
Past members Alan Wooley, Craig "Niteman" Taylor, Stephen Trued, Harris "Stealth" Kirby, Richard Hunter, Michael Schwedler, Rhett Miller, Murry Hammond, Mark Rubin, Danny Barnes
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killbilly#:~:text=Killbilly was a Dallas%2C Texas,mixture of bluegrass and punk.
 
”Ranchero Brothers” are Murry & Rhett playing (acoustic) guitars and singing without Ken & Philip. They do they own songs and covers and I think that Murry gets to sing lead on more than 20% of the songs. 

Yup. They played with Killbilly near the end of their run. They were a great band with a lot of talent.



First time I saw Rhett he was singing folk songs in front of some Cafe on Elm Street. Next time I saw him was at the Killbilly farewell show at Clearview. The ended their show with a sizzling cover of Anarchy in the U.K. followed by Allen Wooly absolutely shredding on a cover of Little Wing.
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UTCzech III

UTCzech III 2917

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Missing my brother something fierce lately, he introduced me to the Old 97s and actually was a roadie for them.  In fact, the last song on Drag 'Em Up (No Mother) describes his death, how is that for a pepper upper?  Regardless, I appreciate Rhett and all the guys for doing that, it meant more to my mom and me than they will ever know, even though I can't bring myself to listen to it without totally losing it, so I don't.

I still love the band though and they have brought me a lot of joy, so for Joel, let's fuckin' rock this joint.  Alcohol may have been involved in this post.

 

 

 

 

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UTCzech III

UTCzech III 2917

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On 2/9/2023 at 12:25 AM, Napoleon said:

No, it was a rockabilly band or something…

KILLBILLY

Killbilly was a Dallas, Texas-based band active from 1987 to 1994, which described its music as being a mixture of bluegrass and punk.[1]Critics have variously described the band's style as a "fusion of bluegrass and shred metal",[2] and as "a genuine bluegrass band playing straight, fast and loud."[1]The Dallas Observer's Robert Wilonsky described the band as "irreplaceable" and their breakup in 1994 as the "end of an era".[3]

Killbilly
Origin Dallas, Texas
Genres Bluegrass music, punk rock
Years active 1987–1994
Labels Flying Fish Records, Crystal Clear Records
 
Past members Alan Wooley, Craig "Niteman" Taylor, Stephen Trued, Harris "Stealth" Kirby, Richard Hunter, Michael Schwedler, Rhett Miller, Murry Hammond, Mark Rubin, Danny Barnes

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killbilly#:~:text=Killbilly was a Dallas%2C Texas,mixture of bluegrass and punk.

 

”Ranchero Brothers” are Murry & Rhett playing (acoustic) guitars and singing without Ken & Philip. They do they own songs and covers and I think that Murry gets to sing lead on more than 20% of the songs. 

Killbilly was kind of a precursor to the Bad Livers (Danny Barnes, Mark Rubin, Ralph White), good friends with Mark even though he is living in New Orleans now, did some session work with him for the Newton Boys soundtrack, good guy

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UTCzech III

UTCzech III 2917

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55 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

oh sorry, reference to my favorite line in the included song - 

I ain't talkin about tomorrow, I'm talkin about tonight
You told me you were drunk already, that don't make it right

I figured it was, just too foggy to remember that exact line last night, good on ya!

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hullabelew

hullabelew 3724

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I know it's not a contest, but Isbell and Felker gets a lot of love for their lyric writing but Rhett is just as strong in my book.   And they continue to put on full-bore rock and roll parties at their shows.  Wouldn't attempt to guess how many times I've seen them, but never a bad show.  

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