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Dear Buddy Miller, You don't know who I am, but I am one of your biggest fans, and Julie is perhaps my very favorite songwriter/singer well, up in the Top 5 anyway. I've never seen you live but I have all your CDs!, and Julie's too. I 've been really looking forward to this first release as a duo. I've played the CD at least fifteen times now and I want to share my opinion of the disc with you. I sure hope I don't hurt your feelings or anything! Buddy & Julie Miller is a very nice sounding CD. I know nothing of your aims and goals re: recordings, but my first thought was, "this is certainly non-offensive. It will appeal to listeners who haven't yet become Buddy Miller and/or Julie Miller fans already." And I mean that in a real good way, Buddy. You two deserve all the attention your considerable talents warrant. And this album is the equal of anything else that any other male/female duo is putting out today...Robin & Linda Williams, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings , and Christine Albert & Chris Gage come to mind. The harmonies are real pretty, and there are nice melodies, but I don't think tracks 3-11 hold up to the promise of your remarkably savvy picks for Tracks 1 & 2. The first cut, written by Richard Thompson, has you both declaring: It's a desperate game we play "Keep your distance," you warn us in song, "for with us it must be all, or nothing at all." The next song, "The River's Gonna Run", has an intricate interlacing of lyric and tune as you & Julie make an aural braid of the same words? Different words? "I got a tear in my heart, I live on shadows in the dark," you sing, and she replies, "I'm gonna dance on the flood, and believe like a child." We are already teased by the CD cover photos, which are detailed with hot red velvet, an erotic Victorian sort of setting. Beautiful Julie sits tenatively, as if wanting your approval. Her feet point towards each other in a gesture of self-consciousness. On the front, she looks skeptical, as if she's hoping you won't stay as unhappy as you look. And on the back, she's chuckling sweetly, while you remain, between her & your guitar, beige and hacked off. She looks like she's won some sort of a bet and got you all dressed up with no place to go. SO, the combination of the first two songs and the cover sets the listener up for some musical conflict. It's all or nothing at all!, after all, and you're frustrated, and she's ethereal. The feathers are gonna fly! But the conflict never develops, and the rest of the CD sounds like your passionate bad boy spirit has been reined in by your feminine side. I'm not sayin' it's a bad thing, but I think I was ready to hear more contrast between your style & Julie's. While I appreciate Julie and EmmyLou (lovely vocal on "Forever Has Come To An End") and Tammy Rogers (mandolin on "Holding Up the Sky") very much, I think a little testosterone might have given this album a bit more edge. There it is. This is a good -- yes, it's a very good CD -- but I'm still hungry for more. Love, Bonny Holder
Find out more about Buddy and Julie Miller at www.BuddyandJulie.com
You can contact Bonny Holder at bonny-at-rockzilla.net |
End of Summer, 2001
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