Old 97s American Primitive

April 7, 2024

Old 97s

American Primitive

ATO

One of Americana’s most enduring bands, The Old 97’s celebrate their 30^th anniversary with American Primitive, their 13^th album. These guys have been around before the term Americana became a ‘thing,” labeled originally as an alt-country outfit. The Old 97s have always painted a realistic, though daunting picture of our world and that’s no different on this round. Eschewing pre-production for the first time, the band, confident in their tightness, delivered the record rather spontaneously. It’s the loud, in-your-face stuff that listeners expect. This band is not one to tone it down, sounding just like the punkish upstarts they were three decades ago. Taking inspiration form Stephen King’s psych-horror novel Duma Key and album art crafted by Hammond’s 17-year-old son Tex Hammond, the lyrics touch on love, mental illness, and on a more positive side, survival. Somehow Old 97s laugh at the absurdity of it all, conjuring joy amidst the madness.

The three-decade lineup of singer/guitarist/songwriter Rhett Miller, bassist Murray Hammond, guitarist Ken Bethea, and drummer Philip Peeples return with a few notable guests: Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and more. The album was produced, engineered, and mixed by Tucker Martine, fresh off his great effort on Charlie Parr’s recent release. As such, the album was recorded in Portland, OR.

There’s a “This is the end of the world as we know it” vibe to opening “Falling Down” with lyrics “You’ve got to dance like the world/Is falling down around/Because it is/Because it is” and later “For the distant crumbling interstate lanes/Where the cars still somehow hum/And the cradle of what used to pass for culture”. Those verses set the tone for what follows. The first single “Where the Road Goes” features Buck on guitar as Miller nods to many places he’s been, gratified to have survived this long, given an unsuccessful suicide attempt at age 14. The title track blisters with dense sonics and soaring guitars, almost antithetical to the beauty rendered in the lyrics from blossoming cherry trees to hawks flying above the new leaves.

“Honey Pie,” on the other hand, is a straight-up shuffle with McCaughey on a vaudeville-like piano and Buck on mandolin as Miller basks in the joy of blissful love. “By the End of the Night’ sounds a bit experimental with happy but shrill whistles and a spacey piano take by Annie Crawford. “Masterpiece’ rests on its thumping power chords, raging lead guitar, and the incessant refrain “Every day’s a masterpiece even if it crushes you.” Sonics turn acoustic on the first tune that qualifies as a ballad, with Jeff Trapp on the e-bow guitar and Buck on guitar as well. “Western Stars’ stomps with a head banging vibe, as Bethea rips off stinging, resonating chords. That same density colors “Chased the Setting Sun” while the hard edged “This World” reprises the “why give a damn” vibe with these lyrics – “DJ DJ dig into your crate/Make me want to cry or rollerskate/Break me in two break me in three/This world is tryin’ to kill me.” Yet, surprisingly, the band sheds the power rock for a gorgeous closing instrumental “Estuviera Cayendo’ with Trapp playing the flamenco guitar.

The Old 97’s have clearly lost none of their trademark brashness, yet they sound more optimistic and carefree on this outing. Turn it up and sing along.

Jim Hynes

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