Buddy Miller: Buddy & Julie Miller : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Over the course of the last decade, singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer Buddy Miller has established himself as what one might call the Miracle Whip of modern-day cosmic American music. Genre giants Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle have called on his high harmony vocals and smart guitar leads on numerous occasions, while his compositions have landed on multi-platinum efforts by the likes of the Dixie Chicks and LeeAnn Womack. His wife Julie Miller has enjoyed a similar degree of behind-the-scenes success, while both have also turned out a handful of critically acclaimed solo albums. This is their first official joint effort, though the co-billing is less an event than a matter of calling a spade a spade, given how ubiquitous they've been on each others' solo albums in the past. The songs, mostly Julie's, are of uniformly high quality, covering solid but well-traveled ground, the sonic landmarks familiar to any fan of Harris, Earle and Lucinda Williams. What the Millers bring new to the table is an uncanny gift for harmony. Buddy and Julie don't "duet"; they morph into one voice -- a high, keening cry that brings to mind a banshee with a bluegrass soul. Shot through the opening cover of Richard Thompson's somber "Keep Your Distance," that voice is almost too much, like trying to bottle lightning in a baby food jar. But when they ease it into Julie's beautiful lament "Forever Has Come to an End," break it apart and reassemble it for dramatic impact on the charging "Dirty Water," or lift it into the heavens with "Rachel" (a stirring anthem inspired by a poem and drawing by the first student killed at Columbine High) -- they achieve genuine grandeur.

RICHARD SKANSE
(September 17, 2001)