I saw him on a tour called Three Girls and Their Buddy (I think that was the name). It had Emmylou, Shawn Colvin and Patty Griffin. Needless to say, it was outstanding. I think the show was rescheduled because Buddy had a heart attack.
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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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. |
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. |
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