After spending last year celebrating their 30th anniversary, Old 97’s have announced American Primitive, their 13th album, which will be out April 5 via ATO. The band made the album in Portland with producer Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket, The Decemberists, Neko Case), and contributions from Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey of REM, The Baseball Project, and Filthy Friends.
“This was the first record we’ve ever done with zero pre-production,” says frontman Rhett Miller. “It’s us working completely on instinct, leaning on 30 years of playing together to come up with something on the fly rather than overthinking any of our choices.”
The first single from the album is “Where the Road Goes,” where Rhett Miller looks back on his life. “I was in Montana and found myself on the banks of the Blackfoot River, watching the water pounding with a ferocious power, and I started building this song as a statement of gratitude for having survived this long,” says Miller. “It revisits some of the darkest moments of my life, including a suicide attempt at age 14 that by all rights I shouldn’t have lived through and yet somehow did. In a way it’s like a spiritual travelogue that rolls back through all the places that shaped me for better or worse, and ends up in this beautiful place that I felt so thankful to experience.”
Watch the “Where the Road Goes” video below.
Old 97’s will be touring the Western half of the US starting in April, and those dates are listed below.
American Primitive:
1) Falling Down
2) Somebody
3) American Primitive
4) Where The Road Goes
5) Honeypie
6) By The End Of The Night
7) Masterpiece
8) Incantation
9) Magic
10) Western Stars
11) Chased The Setting Sun
12) This World
13) Estuviera Cayendo
Tour Dates:
4/3 – Santa Fe, NM – Tumbleroot Brewery
4/4 – Tucson, AZ – Hotel Congress
4/5 – Pioneertown, CA – Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace
4/6 – Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre
4/7 – Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up
4/8 – Morro Bay, CA – The Siren
4/9 – Roseville, CA – Goldfield Trading Post
4/11 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
4/12 – Bend, OR – Domino Room
4/13 – Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater
4/14 –Seattle, WA – The Showbox
4/16 – Missoula, MT – The Wilma
4/17 – Bozeman, MT – The ELM
4/18 – Billings, MT – Pub Station – Ballroom
4/19 – Laramie, WY – Gryphon Theatre
4/20 – Englewood, CO – Gothic Theatre
4/21 – Jackson, WY – Jackson Hole Center for the Arts – Center Theater