[4] Lead vocalist and primary songwriter Rhett Miller has described the band's style as "loud folk".

Lead singer Rhett Miller, born in Austin, later lived in New York City and Los Angeles.

Most songs are written and sung by Miller, with bassist Murry Hammond picking up the vocals on one or two tracks per album.

The band's 2004 album Drag It Up also includes a song written and sung by guitarist Ken Bethea, "Coahuila."

In 2005, Blender magazine ranked the band's then most successful single, 1999's "Murder (Or a Heart Attack)", as the 176th greatest song "since you were born.

Rhino Entertainment released Hit by a Train: The Best of Old 97's, an eighteen-track compilation of songs from the band's beginnings through 2001, featuring liner notes and an essay by rock critic Robert Christgau.

Old 97's noted that the recording sessions in Nashville started on the night of a deadly tornado outbreak and right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

[20][21] The band members portrayed the alien rock band Bzermikitokolok and the Knowheremen in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, singing the original song "I Don't Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here)" and their 2018 song "Here It Is Christmastime," the latter with Kevin Bacon singing lead.