Like a lot of things, I learned about Old 97′s because of a girl. I knew she was a big fan, so in order to have one more thing in common with her, I borrowed some of their CDs from a friend, and the rest is history.

gosh, it must have been back in the early aughts when i first started getting a bit obsessive about bloodshot records (whose output would easily comprise at least a fourth of my playlist when i was a dj at killradio). that was my first real entry into the world of insurgent country (yeah, i heard & dug slobberbone and a few others back in my slc days, but never got too obsessive about it). their name stuck out because i knew about the old standard ballad. so when i came across ‘early tracks’ in aron’s (r.i.p. – despite the crappy way the owners treated workers), i had to have it. i guess it’s no real claim to fame to mention that i’ve now had two reasons to giggle and guffaw while singing along to “w.i.f.e.” but sometimes you have to take what ya can.

the 97′s – like me – hail from dallas. there wasn’t much to do as a high schooler in dallas but love on them, the reverend horton heat & the toadies, besides count the days we could graduate and move to austin.

Wow. I hope it’s random, because I just…really like them. I noticed them in the movie ‘The Breakup’. I thought they were rockin’. It took me back to listening to Jason and the Scorchers and, after that, Dropkick Murphys. It’s music that makes ya wanna have a drink (to paraphrase ‘Smokestack Lightning’)

In the 90′s, before I was an Angeleno, I was a Chicagoan. And I used to listen to a station there called XRT. The XRT slogan was “everything, in no particular order,” and they lived up to it. You could hear obscure Beatles (if there is such a thing) back-to-back with Smashing Pumpkins, followed by Wilco and an old Joe Jackson tune. One day, while fighting Cubs game traffic (a north side tradition), I heard…this…band. I was mesmerized. It was like country, but not. Like old rock-n-roll, but not. The singer’s voice had soul, and pain, and yet the lyrics were witty and smart. I cranked up the radio, determined to hear the name of the band, NO MATTER WHAT. And at the end of the song…they cut to commercial. No title, no artist. But the song was stuck in my head. It took me a two weeks of trying, humming as much of the song as I could remember to everyone I met, before I finally found out that the song was called Jagged and the band was the Old 97′s. I ran out and bought Fight Songs that day, and played obsessively for months. To this day, every time that tune pops up in my iTunes, I’m back on Clark Street, crawling south and savoring summer in Chicago…which, aside from the pizza, is about the only thing I miss from my time in that city.

I see you haven’t posted a winner so I hope I’m not too late. I first heard the Old 97′s on a mix-cd a friend gave me. Not very original I know.

Whoops, I just realized I already have plans for that evening. Ah well.