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* Partners In Crime

Recently a solo disc showed up in the mail from a fellow named Patterson Barrett, titled I Must Be Dreaming. Among the details outlined on the press release included with the disc was the following snippet:

Raised in the Washington, D.C. area, Patterson Barrett moved to Austin shortly after appearing on Jerry Jeff Walker's classic first album on MCA Records, playing pedal steel, dobro and guitar (including the song "L.A. Freeway"). He soon formed the band Partners In Crime, which included Buddy and Julie Miller, and released one album under that name.

This got me curious, because, while I'd been aware that Buddy and Julie had been in bands together in Austin in the mid-late '70s, I'm not sure I knew a record existed which actually documented some of their work during that era.

A little bit of web research and a subsequent visit to the fine (and deep) online retailer gemm.com turned up a used copy of the self-titled Partners In Crime LP (released independently on Barrett's own Criminal Records label); a week later, it arrived at my door. Photos on the front and back cover show Julie -- credited on this album as Julie Griffin (her maiden name) -- cavorting with Barrett; apparently the two were dating at the time. Buddy, as it happens, was a late arrival to the band's lineup, as a photocopy of a brief article from September 1978 that was tucked into the album cover reveals:

Buddy Miller is Partners In Crime's newest member, having joined the band late this summer as guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. Miller worked for a lengthy period with one of Austin's finest country dance bands, Little Bit Of Texas. Besides being a hot country guitar picker, Buddy is a co-contributor to the band's repertoire, and is undoubtedly one of the city's most impressive young singer-songwriters, possessing a deep, wonderfully resonant voice.

Griffin sings lead on two cuts: Bill Browder's ballad "Everyone's Dancing But Me", and the opening track "The Fever" -- written, fascinatingly, by Mark McKinnon, a former editor of University of Texas student newspaper The Daily Texan who later ventured into Democratic politics before switching parties in the mid-'90s to run then Texas governor George W. Bush's media campaign for the presidency. (Given McKinnon's presence in the president's inner media circle, perhaps this goes a fair way toward explaining all those eyebrow-raising tunes listed as being in heavy rotation on W's iPod in a press-release issued a few years back.)

Buddy also sings lead on one cut, though it isn't one of his own songs: "Wondering How" is credited to Larry James Schulz. That Buddy is featured as a singer on a track is somewhat surprising given his recent addition to the band, but Barrett's liner notes on the back cover go a little way toward explaining:

Someone mentioned to me recently that all recordings are flawed in that they're all dated the moment they're recorded. This record is an excellent example. We worked on it a year and a half and could easily have worked longer. By the time we'd finished, we'd added two members (Mike Rieman on bass and Buddy Miller on guitar and vocals) and decided to include a song from the latter's demo.

Barrett's style as a singer, songwriter and performer on the Partners In Crime album is likable if not revelatory. The record suggests the band was probably one of the more entertaining and intriguing live acts on the local scene in mid-late 1970s Austin -- a "good-time honky-tonk rock and blues band with a dash of country and bluegrass," as the photocopied press clipping summarizes. (I believe the article was written by Steve Sagik, though it's slightly unclear from the placement of the byline. The name of the publication is also unclear; a tag at the top says "Rumors, Gossip, Lies & Dreams", but I've never heard of any '70s Austin zine that went by such a name, thus I suspect it was just a section within whatever publication this was....perhaps the long-defunct Austin Sun?)

As for Buddy & Julie -- there's probably not quite enough of a presence here to suggest this album should be dug out and reissued on CD, though for big fans and history buffs, there's certainly value in hearing what apparently were the first recorded and released performances by these two, before they became a duo both personally and musically. There are hints of the talents that would soon blossom in both of them. And, well, the photo of Buddy sporting a full beard is a hoot, for sure...

Barrett's new disc, by the way, is due out October 9; not surprisingly, Buddy & Julie show up on a couple of tracks. Julie's high-school classmate Tommy Taylor (best-known for his work with Eric Johnson) is on drums. The songs are mostly Barrett's own but include one by Bill Browder (the same guy who wrote one of the songs Julie sang on the Partners In Crime LP), and one by Gurf Morlix & Rod Picott, plus a version of The Band's "Sleeping".

adios,
peter

Posted by peter on August 25, 2007 2:15 PM | Permalink