Reviews
 Keep It Simple
Van Morrison
Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
Another Country
Tift Merritt
Be Your Own Pet
Get Awkward
Paul McCartney – The McCartney Years (DVD)
Juno – Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists
Yes - Their Definitive Story
Day and Night Driving
Seven Mary Three
InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
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I’ve been a fan of Old 97’s for a while now, so it’s easy for me to recommend “Hit By a Train: The Best of Old 97’s.” The only problem I’m having is trying to figure out exactly why this is considered a “best of.” Quite frankly, each of their albums stand quite well on their own, and in many ways equals the overall quality of this collection. There are a few songs here that I personally would not have included, (“their rendition of “El Paso”, for instance), while there are plenty of songs from each studio album whose inclusion would have been easily justified (“Wreck Your Life”’s “W-I-F-E” and “The Other Shoe,” and “Too Far to Care”’s “Streets Where I’m From”, for instance). Nevertheless, “Hit By a Train” is an entertaining listen from start to finish. In that sense, this is more of a sampler than a collection of their best hits.
Miller has a tendency toward song-title puns that don’t do justice to the songs themselves (“Cryin’ Drunk,” “Crash on the Barrelhead” – not included here), but this only points out his self-consciously clever way with a phrase. The band has obviously mastered the two-step ‘train beat’ (3 tracks here) and the hard-bouncing “Texas shuffle” (which accounts for eight of the CD’s eighteen tracks), but it’s Miller’s lyrics that keep you coming back for more, even after repeated listens. Miller’s albums as a solo artist certainly hold up well, but it’s his work with Old 97’s that is most effective, which is why this collection works as well as it does. How can you not love an album containing “Barrier Reef,” “Lonely Holiday,” “Jagged” and “Victoria,” all on the same disk? “Hit By a Train” encapsulates some of the band’s best moments, and hardcore fans of the band will want this if only for the non-album tracks (the above-mentioned “El Paso” and “Cryin’ Drunk”), but casual fans would do well to continue exploring their catalog further.
Grade: 
 
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