Rhett Miller revisits a song he co-wrote nearly 10 years ago, with Turnpike Troubadours singer Evan Felker, to announce his new solo album, A Lifetime of Riding by Night. “Come as You Are,” featuring Felker on harmony vocals, is a lilting ballad about separation from those you love. In Miller and Felker’s case, it specifically refers to a life spent on the road.
Miller, the longtime frontman of Old 97’s, says in a statement, “That song came together at a time when Evan and I were both wrestling with the difficulty of leaving our loved ones behind to go on tour. It’s a sweet song but there’s a sadness to it, which feels reflective of the true human condition.”
Turnpike Troubadours recorded a version of “Come as You Are” in 2016 for Bruce Robison’s The Next Waltz music series. “Rhett has been a never-ending source of inspiration and wit and humility for my career and for the times when I didn’t have one,” Felker said in a statement. “He writes with a passion for the world that is as reckless as it is correct and smart.”
The song arrives with a particularly idyllic music video that depicts Miller waking up in a Volkswagen bus that’s precariously perched on stilts high above the ground. From there, he’s seen driving another VW, cutting flowers, and eating ice cream — simple acts of existence that, here, are infused with a sense of melancholy, as if he knows the moments are fleeting.
Miller’s new solo album, A Lifetime of Riding by Night, was produced by Murry Hammond, Miller’s bandmate in Old 97’s. It arrives Oct. 10 via ATO Records and features 13 tracks, some written with cowriters like Caitlin Rose, Nicole Atkins, and the Gin Blossoms’ Jesse Valenzuela. Miller will hit the road in earnest in support of the LP on Oct. 2.
A Lifetime of Riding by Night track list:
1. “A Little Song (Prologue)”
2. “All for You”
3. “Ellie on the Wharf”
4. “Come as You Are”
5. “Be Mine”
6. “People Are Lifted”
7. “A Little Song (Interlude)”
8. “The Bells of St. Mike’s”
9. “All Over Again”
10. “Time Again”
11. “A Lifetime of Riding by Night”
12. “A Little Song”
13. “Brand New Heart”
