The Old 97’s, a Dallas band that cut its teeth in the early ’90s Deep Ellum bar scene, later taking its Texas country-meets-rock ’n’ roll sound nationwide, were lifetime honorees at the Americana Music Association’s Nashville award ceremony on Wednesday.
“I started this job at 16 years old. Back then the Dallas press called me a pretty boy teen folkie, and now, I guess I’m like an elder statesman teen folkie or something,” said frontman Rhett Miller, according to Variety.
He offered some advice to the crowd: “Never get naked on a dressing room couch. If you’re thinking about getting sober, it’s pretty awesome. If you’re gonna sign to a major label, do it in the 1990s. And finally, if you’re gonna be in a band, be in a band with your best friends.”
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Singers Joe Henry and Darrell Scott were also recognized with lifetime achievement awards.
The Old 97’s’ name was inspired by a Johnny Cash ballad about a deadly 1903 train wreck.
“‘The name is not going to be a problem. We’re all so young, we’ll never be old,’” Miller recalled assuring their label in the mid ’90s in a Dallas Morning News interview last year. The company preferred the band be called the New 97’s or just the 97’s, he said.
With over 30 years together and 13 studio albums behind them, “we’re all creeping quickly towards old,” Miller said.
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