Old 97's new disc has something to please all of its fans
Friday, July 16, 2004
MICHAEL TOMBERLIN
News staff writer
OLD 97'S
Drag It Up
New West Records
It's hard to please everybody, particularly when you're the Old 97's.
The Texas quartet has built a varied fan base ranging from puppeteers to pilots and from Bruce Springsteen to prep school students in rural Forest of Dean in England.
That fan base was built by a decade of recording and touring with a string of five albums. The variety of the fans the Old 97's has won is due to the evolution of the band from the straight-up twang-filled alternative country of its 1994 debut "Hitchhike to Rhome" and its follow-up "Wreck Your Life" to the high-octane cowpunk of their breakthrough "Too Far To Care."
The band's last two offerings, 1999's "Fight Songs" and 2001's acclaimed "Satellite Rides" veered more into power pop and smart balladry, taking it farther from its alt-country roots.
Fans of the early Old 97's who feel it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that twang liked the latter work of the band but rated it below the early work. Latecomers love the last two efforts while reluctantly embracing elements of the early records.
With "Drag It Up," the band's debut on label New West due out July 27, the Old 97's have created the ultimate record for all of its fans.
The pedal steel on "Bloomington," "Moonlight" and "Blinding Sheets of Rain" will be to the liking of yesteryear Old 97's fans while "Won't Be Home" and "Friends Forever" recall the band's "Too Far To Care" period.
"The New Kid," "Borrowed Bride" and the equally beautiful "Adelaide" and "The Satellite Rides a Star" will please latter-day fans.
Not all of "Drag It Up" is reminiscent of the Old 97's past. The blazing "Smokers," the Buddy Holly-meets-Tex-Mex sound of "Coahuila" and the semi-psychedelia of "Valium Waltz" are fresh sounds with plenty of texture. Even the somber "No Mother," a tribute to a fan, friend and promoter of the Austin music scene killed by a drunk driver, is as vulnerable and personal as anything the band has recorded.
The Old 97's have long been viewed as a foursome led by the duo of rhythm guitar player Miller and bassist Murry Hammond. The two have shared songwriting duties and while Miller has sung lead on the majority of the band's songs, Hammond has stepped up to the mike on several occasions on each album.
Miller's excellent wordplay is again in rare form on the songs of "Drag It Up," in lines such as "She was a thin girl/ but she had substance" on "Bloomington" and "You knew all was lost/ when she named you the winner" from "Borrowed Bride."
Another treat about Old 97's songs is the band often works on multiple levels without being too obscure. The first single, "The New Kid," for instance, could be a straight-forward jealousy tune about a Johnny-come-lately rival. Or it could be a tongue-in-cheek song to Miller's newborn son.
But what "Drag It Up" proves more than any past Old 97's record is how integral drummer Philip Peeples and lead guitarist Ken Bethea are to the band. Peeples is the backbone, becoming the manic accelerant or the genteel shuffle depending on what each song calls for.
Bethea is the true star of "Drag It Up." Not since his back-to-back opening riffs of the band's signature songs "Timebomb" and "Barrier Reef" has Bethea staked out his spot within the band with such force.
"Drag It Up" shows Bethea in his most beautiful ("Adelaide"), his most experimental ("Valium Waltz") and his most understated ("Moonlight"), all the while showing his versatility. We also hear Bethea as lead singer for the first time ever on an Old 97's record with his frolic through "Coahuila."
Bethea's stamp truly made many of the songs Old 97's songs. A handful of the best songs on "Drag It Up" were slated to be on an often-promised album by the Ranchero Brothers, the alter ego of Hammond and Miller, because the songs did not sound like Old 97's tunes. Bethea, with a lot of help from Peeples, successfully changed that.
After a decade of recording, the Old 97's have found a way to make all fans happy, not an easy feat for a band that has evolved so much. The real reward, however, will be in the new fans "Drag It Up" is destined to add to the growing and diverse fold.
