Old 97s go "American Primitive"

Today, the three-decade-long lineup of singer and guitarist Rhett Miller, bassist Murry Hammond, guitarist Ken Bethea, and drummer Philip Peeples released the official video for first single "Where The Road Goes" which features Peter Buck of REM fame on guitar.

"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," said 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."

Produced by Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket, The Decemberists, Neko Case) and featuring iguest musicians like Peter Buck of R.E.M. and Scott McCaughey of The Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus 5, the album took shape in a series of sessions at Flora Studio in Portland, Oregon. "This was the first record we've ever done with zero pre-production," Miller said. "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 album's title was lifted from a bit of fictional art criticism in Stephen King's psych-horror novel "Duma Key."

King himself tweeted the news about the album early.

In choosing the cover art for "American Primitive, "Old 97's selected a painting created by Hammond's 17-year-old son Tex Hammond.

"Over the last year of touring in celebration of our 30th anniversary, it's been impossible not to feel some emotion welling up at the idea that my bandmates and I have been in this close brotherhood for so long," said Miller. "I think a lot of that longevity has to do with the fact that we're really the same band we were back then. We've experimented with pushing in different directions, and we've had experiences outside the band where we've learned new things, but the way we approach this music has fundamentally remained the same. Our heart is still in the exact same place."

The track list is:
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

Old 97's will kick off a spring west coast tour in Santa Fe, N.M. on April 3 and make stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle.

Tour dates are:
April 3 – Santa Fe, NM – Tumbleroot Brewery
April 4 – Tucson, AZ – Hotel Congress
April 5 – Pioneertown, CA – Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace
April 6 – Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre
April 7 – Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up
April 8 – Morro Bay, CA – The Siren
April 9 – Roseville, CA – Goldfield Trading Post
April 11 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
April 12 – Bend, OR – Domino Room
April 13 – Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater
April 14 –Seattle, WA – The Showbox
April 16 – Missoula, MT – The Wilma
April 17 – Bozeman, MT – The ELM
April 18 – Billings, MT – Pub Station - Ballroom
April 19 – Laramie, WY – Gryphon Theatre
April 20 – Englewood, CO – Gothic Theatre
April 21 – Jackson, WY – Jackson Hole Center for the Arts – Center Theater