Old 97’s

I’ve been a fan of the Old 97’s since 1996. Got to them through my initial deep dive into the “Y’Alternative” genre of rock outfits. Loved those train track chuggin’ drums and Rhett’s clever lyrics. They hit me pretty hard live, too. Saw them for a string of shows on my 1997 East Coast Tour. Ken got to know me loitering around before each show and would load me up with drink tickets.

Old 97’s - Most Messed Up

To get the call to work for them? Such an honor. Rhett’s such a nice guy and can handle little ol’ me and my 666 comps and all that. A fun record to design up! Plus Tommy Stinson was moonlighting on the record. How cool is that?

Old 97’s - Graveyard Whistling

Ken Bethea kicked this one off for me. Leigh and I were on a book tour, holed up at an undisclosed Panera Bread in Phoenix when the call came through. It was a great chat and he got me pumped on their new record and some ideas of which way to take the design. It was a great title! I went digging for a cover, finally turning to a buddy in Portland. Fun fact: That’s a Neil Dacosta photo on the cover! So awesome, haunting and perfect.

Old 97’s - Love The Holidays

This one started with a call from Rhett, and of course, he downplayed his songs a smidge, “We made a Christmas record! I wrote all these songs and the idea is to have them surface each year at Christmas. A perennial sort of thing.” Perfect! And by the way, his songwriting really shines on this one. These songs are great, and get you into the spirit and also make you want to run a train through the Christmas tree in the living room? They do. When talking about direction I remember saying, “Are you guys going to do the cheesy sweaters and all that?” And Rhett calmed me down, “No, no, no…we have a photoshoot scheduled and are going to take it seriously.” And of course, a couple weeks later the shots show up and these elves must’ve got pickled on egg nog CUZ THE BOYS WERE IN THE SPIRIT for the photoshoot. And I think the shots turned out PERFECT! So fun to work with. Bah hum bug!

Old 97’s - Twelfth

The band had just missed the Covid-19 lockdown cut-off in the recording of this one. Rhett told me the use of the cover image was approved by the man himself, Dallas Cowboys legend Roger Staubach. A hero of the band’s, his iconic number twelve jersey fit perfectly with their twelfth long player. Such a timeless shot by Neil Leifer. The grain, colors and movement inspired the entire design of the record. First thing I did was a deep dive into that mid-70s NFL era…all the way down to football cards, and their iconic type formatting. You’ll see cues throughout the kit from classic time.