One of my favorites! Saw him way back in SF at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, closing the show with Emmylou Harris. Just the two of them, incredible voices, incredible sounds out of his strange arsenal of guitars and mandolins, going through a Vox amp... divine!
Audiogon, meet Buddy Miller.
Some of you may be familiar with the name, others not. Buddy is very active in what is referred to as the Americana genre. That just means all things American: Blues, Gospel, Rhythm & Blues, Jump Blues, Folk, Hillbilly, Country & Western, Bluegrass, Rockabilly, Rock ’n’ Roll (the "real" stuff, from the 1950’s), Tin Pan Alley, Power Pop, Singer/Songwriter, even Jazz (though to a lesser degree). Perhaps most importantly, it’s practitioners make their music with art given priority over it’s commercial potential. Very little of it ever makes it onto radio or TV, and spreads mostly by word-of-mouth, including here on Audiogon.
Buddy is a solo artist with a bunch of albums to his credit, as well as partner with his singer/songwriter wife Julie Miller (who, like Buddy, Sam Phillips, and Sam’s ex-husband T Bone Burnett, came to Secular Music from the world of Contemporary Christian Music. Don’t let that scare you off! 😉 ). Buddy and Julie also have a number of albums made together, most of the songs written by Julie.
Buddy has also serves as Emmylou Harris’ guitarist, harmony singer, bandleader, and sometimes producer. He has also produced a number of other superior artists, including Robert Plant, Richard Thompson, Solomon Burke, The War & Treaty (Michael & Tanya Trotter), Ralph Stanley, Loretta Lynn, Allison Moorer, Shawn Colvin, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Greg Trooper, and The Wood Brothers. He does a lot of his recording in his home studio, which takes up the entire bottom floor of his Victorian house in Nashville.
Here’s a video interview of Buddy done in his studio:
https://youtu.be/9_IBN4hLSS4?si=pNAP9VdB27t2b6ri
And here’s another interview regarding his guitar and amp gear:
https://youtu.be/5EooxUCzV20?si=bcqtqQFy6kwcpV7L
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Fantastic info, all. And I am SO envious of those who have seen Buddy and/or Julie live! I have managed to see another artist working on Buddy’s level live: Rodney Crowell, accompanied by Steuart Smith on electric guitar and harmony vocals and the master musician Jerry Scheff (Elvis, T Bone, L.A. studios) on electric bass, just the three of them sitting on stools on the stage at The Roxy Theater on Sunset Blvd. in 2001. The place was full of other artists, including Dave Alvin, who was sitting at the table next to mine, watching the three of them like a hawk. And a few weeks ago I once again saw Iris DeMent at the Aladdin Theater, a beautiful medium-sized and great-sounding Art Deco room in Portland Oregon. She was as always just wonderful, this time accompanied by two young women on electric guitar (a beautiful red Gretsch 5120) and electric upright bass. One of my very favorite songwriters and singers. I'd love for her to make an album with Buddy producing! I’m so grateful and happy to still be alive at a time when so much good music is being made. No, it’s not on radio or TV, but so what? Neither were the hippie or punk bands. | ||||
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My first exposure to Buddy Miller was in Emmylou's backup band when I first saw one of her shows many years ago. He's also played with Lucinda Williams (my favorite singer of all time) quite a bit. I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Nashville to catch one of Lu's Car Wheels anniversary shows at the Ryman in 2019(?), and Buddy sat in on several songs. Buddy's recording catalog as a performer is huge, but if you really want to be impressed check out his Majestic Silver Strings album. Guest vocalists include, among others, Emmylou, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin and Leann Womack. The "silver strings" who play on the album with Buddy are Bill Frisell, Greg Leisz and Marc Ribot. Doesn't get much better than that group! | ||||
I'm a Buddy Miller (even more Buddy and Julie) fanatic. Their music is the most emotionally evocative I've ever heard. There's a new album coming out in a few weeks. Buddy records everything in his home studio which is primarily his living room. When you listen to his productions you are literally hearing that room. If you listen closely you can hear singers moving closer and further from the mic. It's magical. Here's a good article with some pictures. SPOTLIGHT: Come Along as Buddy Miller Shows Aaron Lee Tasjan around His Home Studio - No Depression | ||||
I attended a show in Boston in 2000 featuring Emmylou and Linda Ronstadt supporting their Tucson Sessions: Western Wall collaboration. The band featured Buddy on bass, Bernie Leadon on guitar, Greg Leisz on dobro, and a young drummer who was the son of a well known musician…I can’t remember. The performance was among the best I’ve ever had the pleasure to hear. The band was impeccably led by Mr. Miller, and the songbirds were divine. | ||||
Buddy is not only a very unique guitarist with a style all his own, but he is also a really, really good singer. And then there is his producing. He manages to get a recorded sound unlike any other I have ever heard. It is a very "alive" sound, with all the "brashness" of live music. Lots of presence, and lots of room sound. His recording of drums is particularly good, with the most realistic cymbal sound I have heard outside of direct-to-disc LP’s. Very "big" sounding recordings, but free of "bloat" (Born To Run, anyone? 😉) When ya’ll get some of his records---or listen to the albums of others that he played on---you will recognize the sound of the instruments he plays in these two videos.
In the 1970’s and 80’s Dave Edmunds was my single favorite music maker---as a solo artist singing and playing a 1958 Gibson dot-neck ES335, a band member (Rockpile), or producer (K.D. Lang, The Stray Cats, The Flamin’ Groovies, The Everly Brothers, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Status Quo, Brinsley Schwarz, Nick Lowe, Motorhead, Foghat, Man, a few others), he was the man. That position is now filled by Buddy Miller. Dave has retired and returned to Wales, after having triple-bypass heart surgery a while back. | ||||
And for the guitar players out there, I googled Scott Baxendale - here is a link to his work restoring and greatly improving old Harmony and Kay guitars: https://staygoldguitars.com/collections/baxendale-conversion Considering the age of those guitars and his labor to convert them, his prices seem very fair. JMHO. I have no affiliation with him other than envy. | ||||
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