This past weekend, I went with my wife and two oldest daughters to see The Old 97’s perform at a hometown in-store performance at Good Records in Dallas. The band, half of whom have relocated to the West Coast, was in town playing the House of Blues at the front end of the tour in support of their new album, Blame it on Gravity. I picked up the new album at the store and have listened to it through a couple of times. It’s a good mix of Old 97’s twang and power-pop. I think fans will like it. I’ll post a few songs to the Radio.blog. If I have time, I might write a full review after I’ve had a chance to listen to it more carefully.

The band acknowledged during its short set that they enjoy in-stores because kids get to come. They accommodated all the youngsters by letting them sit on the floor up front and by taking requests from the kids in between playing songs from the new album. The first request was from our daughter, Phoebe, and she requested “Question” from the album Satellite Rides. I like this version better than the album version, I think. Ken Bethea’s lead guitar adds some nice atmospherics to the song.

Before the show, Phoebe had decided to collect the band’s autographs. A cute 8-year-old girl is the perfect thing to be if you want to get autographs, it turns out. The band was very accommodating. Rhett Miller told her that she had the same name as one of his favorite characters from literature, Holden Caufield’s sister, which is funny because that’s exactly where the name came from. (It’s nice to know that not everyone automatically thinks of “Friends” when they hear the name.) This led to a confusing autograph that I had to explain to her later that day.

Rhett had taken the title of the song “Rollerskate Skinny” from a description that Holden gives of his sister in Catcher in the Rye. Thus, “Phoebe, keep roller-skating.”

The next song requested by the kids up front was “Valentine,” off the album Fight Songs. Normally, this is a song that Murry Hammond, the bass player, does solo on Rhett’s acoustic guitar, but this time Rhett and the rest of the band played along—they said for the first time ever—while Murry played bass. I don’t think I had ever before heard Rhett harmonize on the song, despite seeing the band play this song four or five times live. Rhett may have been making up the harmonies as he went along.

We talked to Murry a little bit before the show and I mentioned that our kids were probably even bigger fans of his wife than they are of him. Murry is married to singer Grey DeLisle, who also has an impressive resume as a voice actor for cartoons, including the voice of the evil Azula in our kids’ (and my) favorite animated show, “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” (DeLisle’s other credits include “Clifford,” “The Fairly Odd Parents,” “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends,” “Kim Possible” and “Scooby Doo,” as well as many, many more.) Phillip Hammond, the drummer, mentioned that his kid is getting good at picking out Grey’s voice and will always tell him when “Murry’s wife” is on TV.

The new songs sounded great live. Dallas musician Salim Nourallah produced the new album and all the songs were recorded live in is home studio. This is a good approach for the Old 97’s, a band I’ve always thought sounded better live than on any of their records. There was a funny dialogue between Rhett and Murry before they played the song “The Easy Way.” Rhett was explaining that even though the song has a lyric that goes “Big D, little D, a.k.a. the city of hate,” it should not be taken as an anti-Dallas song, as some have interpreted it. Murry chimed in that it was just one of those “shitty record reviews.” Rhett chastised him for using such language in front of the children (after which Murry obliviously repeated the line, and was chastised again). Rhett pointed out that he’s going to have to watch himself around the house with his 16-month old running around.

All-in-all it was a great little show. Sometimes I think I like in-store performances better than full blown rock shows.