Since appearing on the alt-country scene of the mid-to-late ‘90s alongside like-minded acts Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown and the Jayhawks, Rhett Miller and his crew of cowpunkers have grown a devoted fan base with their whip-smart songcraft and engaging live shows.
The Dallas-born quartet will mark two decades in 2013 with a stop at Tipitina’s, where they’ll play breakthrough record Too Far to Care in its entirety. Kicking off with the careening opener “Timebomb,” the 1997 release—the band’s third, and first on Elektra—established them as a tight, hooky rodeo rock outfit and paved the way for Fight Songs two years later. The latter, Old 97’s’ most polished, accessible disc, was recorded in New Orleans at the famed Kingsway Studios.
The Old 97s’ play Tipitina’s on February 7
Along with Too Far to Care, reissued last year in an expanded 15th anniversary edition, the Tip’s show will include a set of favorites to no doubt include Fight Songs’ “Murder (Or a Heart Attack)”— ranked in 2005 by Blender among the greatest songs of all time. Miller is a wry yet earnest lyricist with a deft band to match; check the pleasant pop twang of “Lonely Holiday,” with its sing-song morbidity: “When you leave me, it breaks me like the note / That you said got stuck in your throat / I’ve thought so much about suicide / Parts of me have already died.”
Some 10 albums and 20 years in, Old 97’s show no such signs of calling it quits.
Old 97’s; Tipitina’s, 501 Napoleon Ave.; Feb. 7, doors at 9 p.m.; $18.
