Fourteen years after Still Carrying A Flame John Miller returns with new recordings. The former Radio Sweethearts frontman, first encountered with Francis Macdonald’s country combo almost three decades ago, slides back into view with such ready ease that he might just have popped out for a pint of milk.
A old-school country singer of the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t mend it’ fraternity with a genuinely classic sound. What strikes particularly is the exquisite variety of his vocal performances; the subtle shifts in texture and nuance from song to song are masterful. These are predominantly sad songs with lyrical precision and invention, and over time he’s perfected the lessons of masters such as Wynn Stewart and Merle Haggard.
Losers Hall Of Fame comes as a 10”; an ideal format for this octet of tunes. The title track opens, and after a brief guitar intro arrives the voice and just like that we’re in the middle of it. It’s a fresh take on a well-worked trope, as are all these songs, but his essential quality – one he shares with Nick Lowe and few others – is to make everything he does sound newly-minted.
It’s followed by a love song to the hard stuff – ‘Kissing The Bottle’ – and a lonely night song – ‘My Side Of The Bed’. With ‘The Pity Party Is Over’ he’ll head uptempo, but before we know it there’s keening steel and moping over ‘Old Bus Tickets’. Finally ‘Love Not Alibis’ briefly brings a touch of Texas.
Long-standing guitar sidekick Martin Barrett is now joined in The Country Casuals by Sy McBain on double bass, JT Davidson on steel and DC Amero on drums. They all sing and likely – along with Sean Read – comprise the Johndinaires. Seonaid Aitken’s fiddle again augments.
Dexys mainstay and Hanging Stars producer Read’s name – along with Johnny Smillie’s jumps out from the album credits ; Smillie’s role here relatively minor in recording Seonaid Aitken’s fiddle parts but Read serves as co-producer. It transpires the album was tracked at Clashnarrow; Edwyn Collins’ unique studio high on the cliffs at Helmsdale; then mixed and mastered at Famous Times in East London. An added Trade Mark Of Quality to what’s an outstanding addition to the UK country pantheon.
UPDATE: the 10” is back in stock, buy from his Bandcamp
Bucketfull Of Brains 