After adopting a sort of punky, ramshackle twang on their early albums,
the Old 97's hit their stride with 1997's
Too Far To Care, a record that fused melodic pop music with roadhouse country-rock. That sound stuck with the band for years, but it became dilluted on later records -- dilluted by
Rhett Miller's intermittent solo career, by fatherhood, by the maturity that comes with middle age. Luckily,
the Old 97's returned to that sonic sweet spot with
Blame It on Gravity, a battle cry of a record that boasts the same sound that made Too Far to Care an ideal pop album for people in cowboy boots. Blame It On Gravity's timing was perfect, too, arriving during the same spring as the final issue of No Depression Magazine -- which, incidentially, featured a story on the band -- and a nostalgic reissue of
Whiskeytown's
Stranger's Almanac. Both were bittersweet reminders that alt country's golden days had faded into twilight, making
the Old 97's the torch bearers for a genre whose flame once burned brightly.