OAKLAND, Calif. -- Rhett Miller is known as the lead singer and one of the main songwriters (if not the main songwriter) for alt-country outfit The Old 97s. Since The 97s burst onto the music scene in 1994 with their debut record, Miller has written three solo albums (well, OK, four if you count the one he did in high school -- it was, after all, released as a real CD). Miller's "fourth" CD, aptly titled "Rhett Miller," evokes memories and moments most people have been through, or will go through, at some point in their lives. Songs like "I Need To Know Where I Stand" and "Like Love" are virtually fingers of the same hand, evoking memories of love not quite yet lost to the ether. "Happy Birthday, Don't Die," a rambunctious if not ambitious number, is the story of a 100-year-old woman planning or hoping to die on her birthday. Oh, and it was written for his 2-year-old daughter. Before you begin thinking the songs are on opposite ends of the musical spectrum, the truth is you might hear your own story in this collection of tunes, even if the lyrics are a bit on the dark side.

The music belies the heavy themes of the songs and are bouncy, fun and catchy. The record is easily accessed from an emotional standpoint and from that of sheer musical enjoyment. In a few words, it's outstanding and it smacks of a familiarity that's hard to explain, but you can't help feeling like some of these songs were written about some of your own experiences. A gifted storyteller, Miller simply doesn't disappoint.

I was fortunate enough to catch up with Miller by phone while he was out running errands in southern CA, the day before a tour begins that will bring him -- as a solo performer plus in his regular role as the singer for The Old 97s -- to The Fillmore in San Francisco on Thursday, July 9.

KTVU.com: You've got a brilliant new record out on the Shout! Factory label and this is your fourth solo recording if I am not mistaken...

Rhett Miller: Yeah, I made one in high school.

KTVU.com: Already having a career as the front man for The Old 97s, do you find it hard to balance the two?

Rhett Miller: It was more tough when I first came out with a solo record with "The Instigator." Everything was changing, Elektra Records, our long time home was shutting down, we had survived a lot of upheaval in the industry. There's not a lot of examples of lead singers making solo records and keeping the band together. It was weird when it started but now it seems like the most natural thing in the world. I come out and do my set and Dan Murray comes out and does his thing then the whole band comes out. But I think it shows the fans there's lots of support and love for everything that everybody is doing. There's no hard feelings.

KTVU.com: You've said before that your approach to songwriting is "taking a heavy subject and putting it to a bouncy tune." But on this record you've said this album takes that process to the next level. What do you mean by that?

Rhett Miller: I think when I was a younger songwriter I tended to focus on that momentary feeling of dismay when you realize you can't connect with another person like you imagine you should be able to. Then there's sort of a drunken, self-centered quality to those songs when I listen back to them. But the songs themselves are kind of fun, sing-along type songs. But they're still about this sort of painful, youthful moment of disappointment. I felt like this record is more...well, I don't know if it's more mature, I kind of feel like I'm Peter Pan forever, at least the way I look at the world. I think there's more songs that span over years, like the song "Like Love" which to me seems like it's happening over a number of years. Or the song "I Need To Know Where I Stand," which is similar in its timeline to "Tangled Up In Blue" by Bob Dylan. You know, they're together, then they're apart, years later they're together again then years later after that, they're still trying to figure out what's happening, what went wrong. So, I think I'm seeing the bigger picture a little more rather than the one moment, the flash of a match outside of a bar sort of thing.

KTVU.com: Is that type of songwriting something you started and stuck with as a songwriter just starting out or is there a logic to it that might not stand out to the casual listener?

Rhett Miller: I love folk music which tends to tell stories. I'm not interest in writing real topical songs about what's happening in our world. But I do like dealing with things that are heavier than you would expect to hear in a pop song. But I love fiction, and I love stories and characters and, I don't expect people to change, but I do expect to hear more verse after verse and find out more surprising things about them. I just get bored if songs are filled up with platitudes, like "Love is this," and "Love is that." Who am I to tell people these rules to live by? I'd rather dissect a moment or a relationship or an awkward interaction. That seems to be more human. We all know that you should do unto others and all the things we are supposed to know. It's the weird little stuff that's more interesting to me.

KTVU.com: Who would you say are your biggest influences as songwriters? And to be clear, what I'm not asking you is "who are your favorite artists?"

Rhett Miller: That's funny, the differentiation, I really love David Bowie and I think I have done some stuff similar to his on Hunky Dory. And I really love Elvis Costello and I think at times I veer into that clever -- maybe too clever for cleverness' sake kind of thing. As far as songwriters I'm the most like or maybe ones I've stolen the most from are the weirder -- well, Ray Davies isn't weird, underrated, maybe, I feel like. But I love Ray Davies because you're not always sure exactly what's going on, but you know there's something at stake. You know there's a story beneath the story. "Waterloo Sunset" for me is the greatest song of all time and you're listening to it and you're trying to figure out who the narrator is. You think "I should be seeing him now" and "What's going on?" And you can come up with a lot of theories about it and that's the great thing, it's not so cut and dry. But it feels real and you can tell he really cares. You can see he's really torn up about whatever it is that's actually happening.

KTVU.com: What is your songwriting process like?

Rhett Miller: Well, you'll learn this soon enough since you are about to become a father, but since my kid was born, it's about finding a moment. I used to be really precious, I had to have ultimate solitude, I had to really feel inspired, whatever. At a certain point you can't afford that, you just have to write when you can write. And if it's good, it's good. I have to write through a lot of bad songs to get to the good ones. Now I sit down with my guitar, people are screaming all around me, the kid, my wife, the TV may be on, and I just have to find a quiet place where I can write in the midst of the chaos. And I am driven by inspiration, mainly, I have to be inspired by some unseen force. I love waking up first thing in the morning with a song in my head.

KTVU.com: Your new CD is really good, I love that it's immediately accessible, I don't always sit down with a CD and like it right off the bat quite as much as I like this one. And I'm not just saying that I wouldn't say it if it were not true. But "I Need To Know Where I Stand" really hit home with me, you captured a moment in time I had forgotten I had even been in. Do you have people come up to you and share that same type of thing a lot?

Rhett Miller: I love to hear that and thank you. You know, yeah, I hear it sometimes, with the new record I'm really just starting, I've only got a couple of weeks of touring behind me so far. It's nice to hear, though, it's really nice. The songs are kind of, about a moment that was really difficult and people come up to me and say they relate to it I kinda feel bad because I know they went through something that was miserable. But maybe we just all have. But yeah, I love that, I live for that. I was kinda saved by music and lived for and was helped by music when I was a young man and so to hear that means a lot.

KTVU.com: You have a show at The Fillmore in San Francisco on Thursday, July 9 and you are opening for your own band. What can fans of your solo work and those of the 97s expect to hear?

Rhett Miller: As far as my solo, acoustic set goes, it'll be mostly stuff off my new record, but the nice thing is I can really do whatever I want. I can pull from old solo stuff or some weird cover, all I know for sure is I'll do a great deal of service to the brand new record and maybe do some fan favorites off the old -- or personal favorites from the older solo stuff. Not so much the one I made in high school, though. (laughs).

KTVU.com: How long does that put you on stage? Is the band doing two full hours?

Rhett Miller: We always say we're doing an hour and a half and we always end up doing two. And I'm doing 40 minutes solo so yeah, that's almost three hours.

KTVU.com: That makes for a long night.

Rhett Miller: Yeah, but it's alright, maybe I'll get into fighting shape.

Rhett Miller plus his band The Old 97s can be seen in the Bay Area at San Francisco's Fillmore this Thursday, July 9, at 9:00 pm.