the sound: Alt-country is like Americana with bite. It’s country, complete with twangs and yowls and balls-out rock and roll. And Old 97’s is alt-country at its best. The album starts off with a kick to the teeth called “Timebomb,” a raucous tune with rapid-fire lyrics and soulful howling. “I got a timebomb, in my mind, Mom / I got it badly for a stick-legged girl. She’s gonna kill me, and I don’t mean softly / I got it badly for a stick-legged girl.” The next song, “Barrier Reef,” slows down to a square dance beat, with a smartass chorus: “What’s so great about the Barrier Reef? / What’s so fine about art?” All the lyrics on the band’s fourth album, “Too Far to Care,” are bittersweet and funny, giving a sense, like the title, that everything turns out wrong—but so what? If only all life’s dramas could be backed with as awesome a soundtrack. Singer Rhett Miller has a Jonathan Richman tinge to his voice, and he twists and warbles it to its full potential, as in “Just like California,” a tale of despair in the West: “Well, the water got high, and she never got dry / She was a water sign / Time is on my bad side… Just like California to make a fool of me.” Punk goddess Exene Cervenkova, of X, appears on the album’s last track, a gritty duet about futile good luck charms:  “I got a four leaf clover / It ain’t done one single lick of good / I’m still a drunk and I’m still a loser / I’m living in a lousy neighborhood.”

the background: The Old 97’s began in Dallas, Texas, in 1993 playing bars. “Too Far to Care” marks the band’s first album on Elektra records. Their previous album, considered by some to be their best, brought the band to the attention of the label. Given the budget to blossom and grow, “Too Far to Care” was arguably the group’s most polished effort to date, but still true to their country punch-and-purr sound. Old 97’s later releaed two more albums on Elektra, none of which achieved the “commercial success” the label hoped for, and the band was subsequently dropped from Elektra in a later merger.

the significance: Back in the mid 1990s, Old 97’s climbed quickly in the ranks of the newly formed alt-country scene, joining such others as The Jayhawks, Drive-By Truckers and Whiskeytown in giving rise to the genre. These days, the ‘alt-country’ description is as commonplace as ‘rock’ or ‘pop.’ The band has released six more albums and a greatest hits compilation, and spawned a cover band, the Satellite Riders. Members Rhett Miller and Murray Hammond have recorded solo albums over the years, and the band is still going strong and strange, currently touring North America. (Jon Nolan introduced me to Old 97’s at Rock Bottom Records in 1997… thanks, Jon.)