The metroplex of Dallas and Fort Worth has since the ’70s been overshadowed by much smaller Austin when it comes to music. While Austin became known as ground zero for Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker and progressive country, Dallas remained most famous for the TV melodrama that bore its name and for the assassination of President Kennedy (“No guns allowed on these premisses” is the message on the door to the Kennedy assasination museum in the School Book Depository). Yet the city has fostered rock legends such Stevie Ray Vaughan (who nevertheless is most associated with his glory days in Austin), Stephen Stills, Sly Stone and Marvin Lee Aday (also known as Meat Loaf). But a lesser-known Dallas act figured most prominently in the development of the Old 97’s.
“The band responsible for bringing our attention toward country is without a doubt Killbilly,” says Hammond, referring to the late-’80s/early-’90s group that mixed bluegrass and punk with sometimes explosive results.
“Both me and Murry spent time touring as members of Killbilly,” Miller adds. “So did Danny Barnes and Mark Rubin of the Bad Livers.” Today Killbilly’s drummer, Mike Schwedler, is the manager of the Old 97’s.
There’s no doubt that the Old 97’s (and their formative incarnations as, among other names, the Sleepy Heroes) took serious detours before they found their way back to the real folk music of their area. An early demo tape indicates that Miller and Hammond would have been more at home on London’s Carnaby Street than on the open prairie.
“For a while, me and Murry played as a regular coffeehouse duo as well,” Miller recalls. On this live circuit that also includes the band’s number one home club, the Sons Of Herman Hall, they met up with local legend Homer Henderson, who took his stage name from a local intersection where his wife runs a clothing shop. Two of Henderson’s most known songs are “Lee Harvey Was A Friend Of Mine” (the very definition of politically incorrect, Dallas-style), and “Pickin’ Up Beer Cans On The Highway”. (The latter was recorded by the Old 97’s during the sessions for Too Far To Care but will only appear as maybe an extra track on a single.)
Bloodshot has previously issued two Old 97’s vinyl singles with only one track available on a regular album, and in 1995, Idol Records released a split 10-inch EP with the Old 97’s and fellow Dallas band Funland, on which each band took a turn at the other’s songs. But the crown jewel in Old 97’s expanding catalog of one-offs was recorded just recently in Nashville. Two tracks were recorded with John Croslin (formerly of ’80s Austin popsters the Reivers) as producer and with country legend Waylon Jennings as the lead singer of the band.
Jennings has been a fan of the band since they crossed tracks at a radio convention sponsored by Gavin magazine a couple years ago. The band played a brief showcase at a seminar for which Jennings was a panelist. “Later, he was asked about his thoughts on alternative country, and he gave our showcase a thumbs-up,” Miller said. “And he talked about us in an interview with an Austin newspaper.”
The initiative to recording a single together came from Jennings’ camp. One song, “The Other Shoe”, was taken from Wreck Your Life; the other, “Iron Road”, was made to order by Hammond while the band was mixing the new album.
The result is perfect — simply Waylon as the singer, with the Old 97’s sound intact. The single was paid for by Elektra but will be released by an as-yet undetermined indie label. “At the end of the session, Waylon told us that he wanted to use us as the band for his next album,” Bethea beams, not even trying to hide his pride.
In Austin, the Old 97’s showcase takes the form of a graduation party. Although Bethea starts out with guitar trouble, the show goes on out of sheer enthusiasm from a loud crowd of hardcore sing-along fans. The band members take their energetic stage antics to new levels, leaving one to wonder if Miller and Hammond actually glue their nerd-glasses to their heads. When Exene Cervenka is introduced by Miller as the band comes back for a rare SXSW encore, the field in front of the stage errupts in total chaos. Two songs later, they have proven that they truly deserve their position among the frontrunners in the alternative-country crowd.
Although they actually play rock with country elements thrown into the mix, bands such as the Old 97’s can make younger people understand that country was as essential an influence as blues on the original musical blend that came out as rock ‘n’ roll — a true American art form.
Tom Skjeklesaether is a Texan trapped in a Norwegian’s body, currently senior writer at Norwegian rock magazine BEAT, and the promoter of the annual alternative-country (wherever that is) festival Down On The Farm.
