Rhett Miller’s 2025 A Lifetime of Riding by Night might be the Old 97’s singer’s most reflective album to date. Producer and Old 97’s bassist Murry Hammond adds piano and Mellotron to a set of tunes Miller renders in a modified folk-rock style, while Miller’s gift for writing deeply philosophical songs that combine alt-country narratives and pop sensibilities shines through on “Be Mine,” in which Miller gets overheated onstage when a fan begins observing him: “I was wrestling with a one-man show / You had nowhere else to go,” he sings. A Lifetime contains some of Miller’s most affecting vocals — he had successful vocal cord surgery after he recorded the album — and his songwriting is canny and immaculately crafted, as you can hear on the gorgeous “Ellie on the Wharf.” Nashville songwriters Nicole Atkins and Caitlin Rose each co-write a song with Miller, and the great alt-country auteur proves he’s as good at being reflective as he is rocking out with Old 97’s. Miller and Old 97’s have been making superb music for more than 30 years — I never travel far without the band’s 2010 masterpiece The Grand Theatre, Volume One, though your favorite might be 1999’s Fight Songs or 2014’s rocked-out Most Messed Up. Singer Lizzie No, whose latest album is 2024’s Halfsies, opens.
7:30 p.m. at City Winery
609 Lafayette St.
