OLD 97'S

(Warning: This stuff is only for the seriously addicted/afflicted...)

TIMELINE

1986
April: Rhett opens for Murry's band, Peyote Cowboys, as a 15-year old teen folkie.

1990
January: Philip and Ken meet in Denton's Smeg Wentfields, a noisy band that never practiced.

1992
October: Ken meets Rhett and Murry at Marquita Courts apartments in Dallas. Rhett and Murry are impressed that Ken owns a Fender Telecaster and he is impressed that they can write songs that have melodies.

1993
January: Cowboys win Super Bowl!
March: Rhett, Murry and Ken played first show at Chumley's in Dallas. We didn't have a drummer. About 20 of our friends came and we opened with "St. Ignatius". September: Philip found out we were looking for a drummer and said he wanted in. We screwed up the first song we ever played together, "Eyes," and had to restart.

1994
January: Cowboys win SuperBowl!!
April: Made our first T-shirts. We sold all 50 in about a month. It was the first time any of us had been in a band that made T-shirts.
May: Recorded Hitchhike to Rhome in Dallas at Crystal Clear Sound. Alan Wooley of Killbilly produced.
June: Ken broke his arm playing baseball and Alan Wooley filled in for two months. August: Bought a 1981 white Dodge van for $2400 from a nursing home. Hooked up with Mike Schwedler, who was starting a management company after his old band, Killbilly, broke up.
September: Played first gig outside of Dallas area in New York at CMJ. We opened for Blue Mountain.
October: First Chicago gig at the Double Door opening for Freakwater. Played two nights later at the Empty Bottle and a girl kept showing her boobs to us. Came home to Dallas and Hitchhike to Rhome was released.
December: Sold out the original pressing of Hitchhike to Rhome of 1000. As Donny Ray Ford of the Cartwrights would say, "It went plywood".

1995
January: Recorded "Por Favor" for Bloodshot Records in Chicago at Attica Studios. Sold out the Empty Bottle. Noticed for the first time that in quiet songs, you could here the people singing along. Weird.
January-June: Toured constantly. Had to sleep in the van in Iowa because we got stuck in the snow.
April: Won "Best New Band" in Dallas Observer Music Awards.
June: Recorded Wreck Your Life at Attica. We co-produced with Chuch Uchita. Stayed the whole month in Chicago. Had a great time. Blew up a stick of dynamite on the 4th of July with some rockabilly guys.
October: Wreck Your Life was released. Sold 2500 copies the first week and Bloodshot had to reorder. Toured Midwest and Northeast. Went to a Monday Night Football game in Kansas City. (The one where Tamarick Vanover ran back a punt to win the game in overtime!)
December: Appeared on Big Iron's Christmas in Deep Noellum, a Christmas compilation. We did "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas".

1996
January: Cowboys win Super Bowl!!!
February-March: Released "Crying Drunk" b/w "Let the Train Blow the Whistle" 7" on Bloodshot. Toured Southeast and West Coast. Played in front of and met Waylon Jenning in Atlanta. He called Murry, "Hoss". Played SXSW for the first time with some of the best of the nation's Insurgent Country Bands: Hang Dogs, Slobberbone, Whiskeytown, Waco Bros, and Blue Mountain. Whew...
March: Won "Best Band Overall", "Best Country & Western", "Most Improved", and "Best Single" in Dallas Observer's Music Poll.
June: Went to Europe and played Norway and Switzerland festivals. Had a great time.
March-July: Ate a lot of fancy foods at the expense of a bunch of big labels.
September: Signed with Elektra records. We should be in the studio in the fall of '96 and a new CD should be out in the spring of '97
December: Began recording third CD in Tornillo, TX on the 9th.

1997
January: Finished recording Too Far To Care, our third CD, in Woodstock, NY.
February: Cut two songs with Waylon Jennings in Nashville. Recorded "Iron Road" and "The Other Shoe." Waylon sang lead vocals on both. They should be released as a limited 7" before long.
March: Kicked off No Depression Tour at SXSW. Tour included four bands: Hazeldine, The Picketts, Whiskeytown, and us. It will cover 18 dates and range from Texas to Seattle to Nashville.

Member Profiles:

Rhett Miller (Acoustic Guitar, Vocals): Rhett has been a singer/songwriter in Dallas since he was 15. He's written about 600 songs, and once won the Dallas Observer Music award for best Folk/Acoustic performer in a year that he only played one acoustic show all year. He also likes to play street hockey, read mystery novels, and drink Hawaiin Punch.

Philip Peeples (Drums): Philip is soundest musician in the band. We're constantly having to spray him down with pesticide to keep other bands from trying to steal him. He's also a pretty good mechanic, which, as any band will tell you, is huge. Philip grew up in east Dallas on Rush and KISS. He's been playing drums since he was a little kid. He is also part owner of Big D Bikes, a company which puts together badass mountain bikes (214-520-BIKE).

Murry Hammond (Vocals, Bass): Murry grew up in Boyd, TX, just outside of Rhome. He started a band called Peyote Cowboys in Dallas in 1983 but it dissolved into unorganized mush by 1985. Murry is a train fanatic and thought up the name for the band. He is working on a book about the Bartlett-Western railroad which ran in Central Texas at the beginning of the century.

Ken Bethea (Lead Guitar): Ken grew up in Tyler, TX where his dad was a football coach. His first job out of college was teaching high school English in a tiny East Texas town. He was busy working for the defense industry when he met Murry and Rhett as was lured into the seedy world of rock and roll. He likes to read, play video games, play his accordian, and shoot the shit with whomever will listen.

Back to The EAR CD, Vol. 1

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