Pre-Order: Old 97's - Grand Theater Vol. 2 (Smoke Marble)

The Grand Theatre Vol. 2, the ninth studio album from Old 97's, returns to vinyl for the first time in over a decade - now pressed on limited-edition Smoke Marble.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 let's 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.Out of print on vinyl for more than a decade, The Grand Theatre Vol. 2 returns here on Smoke Marble for the first time ever in color, completing the Grand Theatre story alongside it's companion volume.