Old 97's - The Grand Theatre Vol. 2

Released July 5, 2011, on New West Records, Vol. 2 is the sister record to The Grand Theatre Volume One, drawn from the same marathon writing-and-recording process: a week of road-testing new material live at Sons of Hermann Hall in Dallas, followed by sessions at Treefort Studios in Austin. Where Volume One collected the most immediate, rock-forward songs from those sessions, Vol. 2 leans into the material that unfolds a little slower — a rare two-part song cycle in the band's catalog, and one that lets frontman Rhett Miller's songwriting breathe in a different way.

Rolling Stone praised Miller's "articulate, off-the-cuff songs," noting how the record sits right between "the composure of the control room and the looseness of the barroom." Highlights include "Brown Haired Daughter," the wry character sketch "I'm a Trainwreck," and "Manhattan (I'm Done)," a rare country dig at New York that, as Rolling Stone put it, actually sounds like the singer gave the city a fighting chance before walking away.

With thirteen tracks that range from barroom rave-ups to some of the band's more understated songwriting, Vol. 2 rounds out one of the most ambitious releases of the Old 97's career — two albums' worth of material born from a single, prolific stretch of songwriting.