It's Miller Time

A first-rate set of songs shifts Buddy Miller out of the sideman and into the spotlight

by Peter Blackstock

Buddy and Julie Miller
Photograph by Grant Alden

It arrived innocently and quietly enough in the post last summer, amidst the relative trickle of new releases that tend to surface between the labels' much busier spring and fall seasons. Your Love And Other Lies, by Buddy Miller, some guy I'd never heard of; I set it on the rack of things to listen to that never does quite manage to shrink to zero. Fortunately, someone on the America Online "No Depression" board tipped me off that this one oughta get moved up in the stack. By the time two or three other people had chimed in with similarly hearty recommendations, the disc had made it into the rotation on my CD player, and it didn't leave there for a good month or so. I still hadn't a clue as to where Buddy Miller had suddenly emerged from, but I knew one thing: Your Love And Other Lies was the best true country record I'd heard all year.

In due time I discovered that Miller had been there all along, lurking just beneath the radar, low enough that it was possible to have missed him even if you'd been paying attention. He spent the better part of the last decade playing guitar with Jim Lauderdale, a comrade in that fringe-country community which never quite seems to fit into Nashville's big plans. But one listen to Your Love And Other Lies begs the obvious question: With sure-fire songwriting chops and a soulful vocal twang that easily equals his considerable talent as a guitarist, why was this guy merely serving as a sideman for all those years? Why didn't Buddy Miller have his own record deal?

"Nobody asked me," he answers, quite matter-of-factly. "And I didn't know if I had the stamina to go around banging on everybody's door saying, 'Please let me do a record. . . . When HighTone called me, it kind of surprised me, but of course I said sure."

Sometimes all there is to A&R is recognizing the obvious and acting on it. In that sense, HighTone's role in Miller's career is quite similar to what the influential independent label did for Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Miller is in his early 40s, as was Gilmore when HighTone issued his equally long-overdue solo debut, Fair And Square, in 1988. Such on-the-surface evidence might lead one to the conclusion that Gilmore and Miller are simply late bloomers, but in reality, they've been plenty active for most all of their adult lives, playing music in various places and configurations for the better part of three decades.

In fact, when Gilmore first started kicking up dust in Lubbock with his buddies Butch Hancock and Joe Ely as the Flatlanders in the early '70s, a fresh-faced, barely-out-of-his-teens Miller had just arrived on the Austin scene, where he spent about eight years kicking around in bands – generally going nowhere but having fun, which has always been the unofficial pastime in Austin, especially back in those days. It seems fitting, then, that our interview is taking place in the lobby of an Austin motel, on a mid-February afternoon between a two-night stand at the Continental Club kicking off HighTone's Roadhouse Revival tour (which featured Miller, Dave Alvin, Dale Watson, Big Sandy and Rev. Billy C. Wirtz).

It was in Austin that Miller met his wife, Julie, with whom he frequently collaborates on songwriting and who recently inked her own solo deal with HighTone (Buddy's producing her record, tentatively due out later this year). His running buddies in those days included Shawn Colvin and Gurf Morlix, the latter of whom played guitar and bass on Your Love And Other Lies. "Gurf and I were playin' in bands, drivin' around in old school buses in 1976 together here," Miller recalls. "And Shawn was playing in a band called Dixie Diesels then; it was like a Western swing band. And I had a different country band. We were just friends; it was a fun time, a good time."

Though they recently settled in Nashville, Buddy and Julie spent most of their post-Austin years living in either New York or Los Angeles. It was during this stretch that Buddy hooked up with Lauderdale. "We're like brothers," he says of his longtime musical ally. "We met in 1980 when we were both playing country music in New York, which was kinda screwy, and we've been friends since then. I've played with Jim for like the last eight or nine years."

Miller made a point to acknowledge his old pals on Your Love And Other Lies, on which he covers songs by both Lauderdale and Morlix. He also unearthed a couple of long-lost chestnuts from the country annals – "You're Running Wild", an old Louvin Brothers hit, and Tom T. Hall's classic "That's How I Got To Memphis".

But it's the originals here that really stand out, particularly the ones he co-wrote with his wife Julie. The album kicks off with one of those, a rousing cut called "You Wrecked Up My Heart" that sets the tone for the album from the moment Buddy and Lucinda Williams drawl out its opening line in sublimely spunky a cappella harmony. Equally gutsy and full of glorious grit are "I'm Pretending", which features Lauderdale on backing vocals, and "I Don't Mean Maybe", with Julie providing the harmonies herself. "I Can't Slow Down" is more of a gradual groove, coolly casting a smoldering spell as the great Dan Penn takes his turn as the contrapuntal crooner in the chorus.

Best of all, though, is "My Love Will Follow You", which has that intangible, yet intrinsic, appeal of a timeless classic. The melody is simple and memorable, yet still intriguing; the lyric is well-structured, yet full of passion. "Even on the road that takes you down/Where the cords of human kindness come unwound/My love will follow you," Miller sings on perhaps the song's most moving and deeply cutting couplet.

In fact, someone recently commented that "My Love Will Follow You" struck them as "a country 'Every Breath You Take'" – and that someone just happened to be Kix Brooks, half of mainstream country's current chart-topping sensation, Brooks & Dunn. Overrated and overexposed as they may be, that twosome deserves credit for plucking this diamond from the rough and covering it on their new Arista disc. Not that they're the only ones who have suddenly discovered the gems lurking on Your Love And Other Lies: George Ducas has recorded "I'm Pretending" for his next Capitol Records release, due out in July; and Jon Randall has recorded "Don't Listen To The Wind," a song written solely by Julie that Buddy recorded on his album. In retrospect, it seems fitting that the record opens with Buddy and Lucinda Williams singing together, because Your Love And Other Lies is shaping up to be the kind of gold mine for choice cover material that Lucinda fashioned with her 1988 self-titled album on Rough Trade. Despite the extraordinary quality of the songwriting, Buddy says he and Julie didn't expect the action the album has attracted from Nashville acts. "We were surprised," he admits. "I wasn't playing any gigs under my name, and nobody knew who the heck we were. . . . And we haven't shopped it around. I find it so funny, because the whole Nashville machine, they write their lyrics to be like, 'Please record my song!' – you know, they have the hokiest stuff in there. And we just made a record to make a record. We cut it in the living room."

Ah, yes, we were wondering about this Dogtown Studios place credited in the liner notes; somehow, it didn't quite sound like a name befitting one of Music Row's high-end recording facilities. "We've got this old, old house that was built in 1903, and at some point it was divided into a duplex, so the two halves are pretty soundproof from each other," Buddy explained. "So we just live in half the house and record in the other half. We set the drums up either in the living room or the back room, and we all just play until the neighbors throw rocks.

"It works out fine. The board's marginal, but" – he pauses, before slightly redirecting his train of thought – "I mean, I didn't know anybody was gonna hear this record. I thought maybe it would end up on five or ten people's cassette players in their car running at the wrong speed, and they'd never know where it was recorded. But I think it sounds OK, actually. It's got good old mikes and that kind of stuff that I've collected over some years."

In fact, wheeling and dealing in home studio equipment was how he ended up meeting Dan Penn, once an idol of Miller's youth and now a friend and guest singer on Your Love And Other Lies. "He came over to buy a piece of equipment of mine, and I didn't even know it was him," Miller recalls. "He was wearing what I now know is, like, his 'uniform' – which is overalls, cap, toothpick – and, he was looking at this two-inch, 24-track machine I had. He was saying things like, 'Sounds good, don't it' – no technical questions. And on the way out of the house, he said, 'OK, I'll probably give you a call. My name's Dan, Dan Penn.'

"And at that point, I said, 'Step inside, close the door and sit down!' He's been a hero of mine forever. I'd had his old record that came out on Bell in the '60s, and I would just buy records when I was growing up looking at the back to see if there were any Dan Penn songs on it. So we became friends after that."

That serendipitous meeting makes for a great anecdote, though it also becomes evident during our interview that Miller seems to know just about everybody. This comes as no surprise, given that he's a genuinely personable and amiable fellow, and has lived in so many cities and been part of so many musical circles over the years. Our interview began with small talk about ex-Jayhawk Mark Olson and Victoria Williams, with whom Miller, his wife and Jim Lauderdale are hoping to do a European tour sometime in the near future if time and scheduling permits. Throughout the course of the interview, Miller is casually flipping through a copy of No Depression #2, and he's constantly stopping to mention someone he knows or is curious about. "I love these Dead Reckoning guys . . . Hey, Ronnie Mack! . . . What do you know about these Freakwaters?"

It's no wonder, then, that he was able to surround himself with such a remarkable supporting cast on Your Love And Other Lies. "Lucinda and I lived in L.A. at the same time, and through Gurf I've kinda known her for a long time," he says, referring again to his old Austin pal Morlix, who has played guitar with Williams for years. Also a fixture in Lucinda's band is Donald Lindley, who handled most of the drumming duties on Miller's record. Tammy Rogers and Don Heffington, from the Dead Reckoning camp, show up on a few cuts. Nashville great Al Perkins contributes steel guitar on several tracks.

And then there's the queen herself, Emmylou Harris, adding her trademark Midas-touch harmony to "Hold On My Love". Which brings us to Miller's most recent digression – since March, he's been playing guitar on Emmylou's world tour to support her Wrecking Ball album. Miller plays hard-country counterpoint to the Acadian-soul/funk rhythm section of Daryl Johnson and Brady Blade, who frequently work with Wrecking Ball producer Daniel Lanois.

The unlikely combination has proven to be a brilliantly effective vehicle for Emmylou's music [see page16 for a review of the band's Portland, Oregon, show], despite Miller's overly humble concerns during our February interview that he might not be good enough for the part. "If I stink after a week, they could say, 'Gosh, we're really sorry, but, what's Steuart Smith's number, do you know it?'" he cracked, before eventually acknowledging that "I think I'll probably be able to keep that gig. I listened to Wrecking Ball and heard what he (Lanois) was doing on guitar....I wasn't gonna imitate it, because he's nuts," he says, with a smile that makes clear his admiration for Lanois' abilities.

"He's out on the edge of the limb at all times, and doesn't care if he comes back. And I've got a lot of respect for that kind of player. Richard Thompson does the same kind of thing with his playing. It's a much different style, but they just take chances. But I can hear what he's doing tonally and know the sound he's getting, and I can kind of get that. And I can play the country stuff. Her records are like the classic records that brought in such a high level of integrity to country music, and I know all that stuff."

The Emmylou tour will keep Miller busy through the summer, after which he plans to finish working on Julie's record and then get started on his second disc for HighTone. "I've got a bunch of songs and I'm ready to cut the next record right away," he says. "It was probably almost ready when this one came out. And as soon as this next one's out, I'll probably have another batch of songs ready to go."

Given the excellent appetite-whetting mini-set Miller cranked out on the Roadhouse Revival tour, it seems reasonable to expect some live dates to support the second album. That never really materialized after Your Love And Other Lies came out, mainly because, like me, most people just didn't know who he was at the time – a problem that hopefully has been largely eradicated by his significant accomplishments of the past year.

"I did everything I could" to tour behind the first record, Miller says with a laugh of resignation. "I begged people to book me. I don't know how these bands get booked. And a lot of 'em don't, or a lot of 'em go out and lose a lot of money.

"I did go out with Lauderdale; we went around the country, and I opened for him. They wouldn't let me have a band play; I just got up with a cue stick and sang for a while. And that was fine. Any way I can, it's nice to play."