Buddy Miller: Cruel Moon (2000)

(As published in the Times of Acadiana ... )

Buddy Miller
Cruel Moon
(Hightone)

For years, Miller has labored valiantly in the shadow of Emmylou Harris (in whose Spyboy band he plays lead guitar) and Julie Miller (his wife). Both women contribute harmony vocals (as do Steve Earle, Jim Lauderdale, and Joy Lynn White) to this, Miller’s third solo outing, but it’s Miller’s own twangy, Bakersfield-by-way-of-Appalachia singing and his application of it to styles usually associated with smoother-voiced singers that makes these songs live. His version of Paul Kennerly’s “Love Match” sounds like the Everly Brothers gone rockabilly, his “I’m Gonna Be Strong” like Gene Pitney’s with the lights down low, orchestra sent home and a few stiff drinks down the hatch. Rating: Four roots-rock reverberations out of five.

Don Dixon to Taj Mahal: Six One-Line Reviews (2000)

(As published in the Times of Acadiana ... )

Don Dixon, The Invisible Man (Gadfly). Yep, the ’80’s alterna-pop talent scout and producer, with vocals, hooks, and experiments that suggest there’s an Elvis Costello inside him struggling to get out.

Elf Power, Vainly Clutching at Phantom Limbs (Arena Rock). A ’94 underground classic unearthed, with its hooks, distortion, droning experimentalism, and patina of having been recorded in the family basement still intact.

John Hammond, Best of the Vanguard Years (Vanguard). A twenty-three-track, white-blues retrospective spanning ’64 to ’79 and featuring most of the Band plus all of Mike Bloomfield on six tracks.

Emmylou Harris, Last Date (Eminent). The Everly and Haggard covers work, the Springsteen cover doesn’t, the Stills-Young and Buck Owens covers split the difference, and the two bonus tracks beat them all.

John Hiatt, Crossing Muddy Waters (Vanguard). A more accurate title: Crossing Muddy Waters with the Band on the Back Porch Unplugged.

Taj Mahal, Best of the Private Years (Private). This isn’t “the best” of Mahal’s Private years mainly because it isn’t Señor Blues, his best Private album, but it is lively R&B fun, and none of the oldies sound taken for granted.