The more things seemingly change, the more they stay the same in the Old 97's camp.

The group formed as a bar band in Dallas in 1993 and played two sets a night, sometimes four nights a week, in exchange for tips, beer and the occasional barbecue sandwich. In the meantime, they tried to fuse the sounds of Elvis Costello, Hank Williams, The Clash, Johnny Cash and Camper Van Beethoven.

That unlikely fusion eventually led to an independent record deal for Old 97's, named for the Johnny Cash tune "The Wreck of the Old 97." Then came a major-label deal, marriages, babies and moves by some members to exotic locales like New York City and Los Angeles. By the time the band finished touring in support of its 2001 album of tasty power-pop, "Satellite Rides," it almost seemed like the end of the Old 97's was nigh.

Instead, the quartet -- Rhett Miller, Murry Hammond, Ken Bethea and Philip Peeples -- has come full circle after three years away from each other, three years full of side projects, births and movement. The Old 97's are back on the road, with a new album full of country-fried rock and pop, "Drag It Up," and back on an indie label, New West Records, home to the likes of fellow country-rockers John Hiatt, the Drive-By Truckers and The Flatlanders.

"It was very easy coming back together," said Miller from a Chicago airport terminal this week, in the midst of the Old 97's first extended tour in years. "The staying apart was the hard thing. We wanted the break to not be as long as it was, but things just happened. My record (Miller's 2002 solo album "The Instigator") was just sort of a slow mover. It kept doing better and better as it went before trailing off. Then with my wife being pregnant, the guys were cool enough to give me a few months to be with my kid. So, it was great. We were kind of chomping at the bit [to get back together]."

"Drag It Up" is the band's sixth album, and after recording in high-tech studios for the last few, the musicians went back to basics. The band recorded mostly live, all the members playing and recording their parts together, in an eight-track studio set up in a 19th-century country church in Woodstock, near Miller's new home in upstate New York's Hudson River valley. Much like past efforts, Miller wrote the lion's share of the songs' lyrics, with Hammond and Bethea adding tracks to the final album as well.

"Because of the break, we had a backlog," Miller said. "Some of the songs are a couple years old, and some of the songs are a few years old, and [putting the album together] was really just a function of everyone living with the material for a while and saying, 'Oh my God, this song 'Won't Be Home' is a classic Old 97's song and has to be on the record.'

"It should have been on 'Satellite Rides,' but for some reason Ken was being ornery," Miller continued, joking that, "In a democracy, it's inevitable one of the guys will be ornery every day, which is why I like being able to make solo records."

Touring has been an ideal way for the longtime friends to get reacquainted, and the two-hour shows have been well-received by critics across the country. Miller figures the shows cover about "eight or nine" of the new album's 13 songs, plus another 18 or so spanning the band's other five albums.

While the fans might get a few surprises from the set lists Miller creates every night, he's had a few new things to get used to himself.

"The biggest one is Ken actually singing his song ('Coahuila')" Miller said. "He never even had a microphone before, and now he's talking between songs and singing his own song! Every once in a while he wants to sing a harmony part in the middle of a song that he's never sung on before, and it will jump out of those monitors on my right and scare the sh-- out of me! 'God, what's that screaming over there? Oh, it's just Ken.' " Full steam ahead

* The Old 97's, with openers Sarah Lee and Johnny, play In the Venue, 219 S. 600 West, Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

* Tickets are $15, available at Smith's Tix outlets and 24Tix.com.