A Lifetime of Riding by Night

Rhett Miller has been making records since he was 17 years old, and hes become a cult hero both as the frontman with alt-country lifers the Old 97s and as a solo artist drawn to smart, incisive pop music. His real or imagined life as a ladies man was one of his favorite themes until 2015, when he finally came to terms with his alcoholism and got sober. Since then, Miller hasnt turned into a monk or a killjoy, but hes been willing to write with a greater maturity, giving a lot more thought to the consequences of bad behavior. Looking a potentially scary future in the face is not something that comes easy to Miller, and yet he does that with clarity and insight on 2025s A Lifetime of Riding by Night. The album feels like the work of a man who is wondering if fate is going to soon collect an overdue bill, and theres a good reason. Miller frequently blew his voice out while touring steadily with the Old 97s in 2023 and 2024, and when he discovered he couldnt hit his highest and lowest notes anymore, a trip to the doctor delivered sobering news -- he had a cyst on one vocal cord and a polyp on the other. While his problems could be treated with surgery, he was informed there was a ten percent chance it would fail and hed never sing again. Before the operation, Miller went into the studio with Old 97s bassist Murry Hammond as producer, knowing there was a small chance hed never make another album, and that informs the sound and feel of A Lifetime of Riding by Night. Miller is in surprisingly good voice considering his circumstances behind the recording, but his narrower range is clear, as well as the additional grit in his instrument. This is not the work of a man in the bloom of youth, and the material reflects it -- "Ellie on the Wharf" and "Be Mine" carry a gravity thats unexpected, "Time Again" is the work of a man struggling to hope, "The Bells of St. Mikes" is a bittersweet memory of youth, and "All Over Again" is a moving plea for compassion in a time when its in short supply. Hammond was responsible for the production and musical backdrops, and he has matched Millers songs to spare, atmospheric washes of keyboards and guitar, adding just the right amount of color and shade that reinforces Millers performances without drawing attention away from his voice. This doesnt sound much like anything Miller has released in the past, and that only adds to its power; this is a chronicle of a man pondering an uncertain future with both courage and trepidation, and A Lifetime of Riding by Night is the most powerful solo effort hes ever made. (By the way, Millers surgery was fully successful.) ~ Mark Deming