Anthology

Rhett Miller is best known as the lead singer of the alternative rock band Old 97’s, but he also has a successful career as a solo musician.

Before getting into music fulltime, he briefly attended Sarah Lawrence College on a creative writing scholarship before dropping out in 1990 to form the Sleepy Heroes, an alterna-pop band.

Miller’s solo career officially started in 1989 with the release of “Mythologies,” which was produced and recorded by future Old 97’s member Murry Hammond.

Then, in 1993, Miller and Hammond joined with Ken Bethea and Philip Peeples to form the Old 97s, which is considered to a pioneer in the alt-country movement of the mid to late 1990s along with bands such as Uncle Tupelo, Drive-By Truckers, Whiskeytown, The Jayhawks, and The Bottle Rockets.

Miller has released nine studio albums with the Old 97s, along with two fully extended plays, and one live album. Their most recent release is “The Grand Theatre, Volume One.”

In between band projects, Miller has released three solo albums, including 2002’s “The Instigator,” which was produced and recorded with Jon Brion; 2006’s “The Believer,” which includes a cover of Brion’s “I Believe She’s Lying”, and “Fireflies”, a duet with Rachael Yamagata.

His most recent album, “Rhett Miller,” was released in June 2009 (Shout! Factory), and includes Jon Brion on guitar and bass, The Apples In Stereo’s John Dufilho on drums and Billy Harvey on guitar.

Upon the album’s release, Rolling Stone called it Miller’s “strongest solo set ever” and “I Need To Know Where I Stand” is the best known song from the album.

Other well-known Miller recordings include his 2004 remake of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound” for one of MasterCard’s “Priceless” advertisements and songs from Miller’s second solo album, “The Instigator,” were featured on an episode of Joan of Arcadia during its short run on CBS.

Meanwhile, Miller’s music has been used in the soundtrack of the American comedy series Scrubs. Miller also covered The Beatles song “Girl” for 2005’s “This Bird Has Flown – A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Beatles’ Rubber Soul.”