BUDDY MILLER'S "THE MAJESTIC SILVER STRINGS"

This is actually a group, led by Buddy Miller, one of my favorite artists of the '00s. Buddy has made great records on his own and with his wife, Julie Miller.  He produced two of my favorite albums of 2010, Robert Plant's Band Of Joy and Patty Griffin's Downtown Church. I actually discovered Buddy as a member of Emmylou Harris' band during her Spyboy era (I saw him open for her and play guitar in her band about a decade ago).

Bill Frisell, a kind of art-jazz guy who has played a lot with John Zorn and also Vernon Reid, is also in the band. So is Marc Ribot, another guy who has played with Zorn, but he's played a lot with Tom Waits as well. And finally, Greg Leisz, who I know mainly as the steel guitarist who plays with Matthew Sweet, but he's played for tons of other artists as well.

This album features mostly traditional country songs re-interpreted in interesting ways with lots of guest vocalists, including Patty, Emmylou, Julie, Lee Ann Womack and Mark Anthony Thompson (aka Chocolate Genius, a solo artist who played with Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions Band). It doesn't come off as a gimmicky record-label contrived production, it's quite good.  I like Buddy's simpler stuff, and I'd also like to hear more of Buddy singing (he mostly stays back and lets other people sing), but it is a really cool album, very ambitious. It reminds me in some ways of Don Was' Orquestra Was project, just in how it takes country to a very different place.  A lot of this album makes me feel like I am at a beach party in Hawaii as the sun is coming up.

The highlights: the most rocking song on the album is Roger Miller's "Dang Me" (given a different twist by Chocolate Genius, singing "they oughta take a rope and hang me!") and Emmylou's take on '50s country singer Stonewall Jackson's "Why I'm Walkin'." Buddy and Marc take the vocals on George Jones' "Why Baby Why" which is excellent and Julie sings "God's Wing'ed House," which she wrote the lyrics to (Marc wrote the music).

If you've heard of Buddy Miller and want to check him out, this is NOT where to start. For that, I'd go with Buddy & Julie's The Best Of The Hightone Years.  But give this one a few listens, it's rewarding.

PATTY GRIFFIN - DOWNTOWN CHURCH - TIE FOR #11

There's not a lot of gospel music in my collection, but when I find something (or someone) I like, I really like it (or them).  My second favorite album of 2010 was Mavis Staples' You Are Not Alone, and another album that almost made my top 10 was Patty Griffin's Downtown Church.

Patty actually is already in my top 10, as she sings on Robert Plant's Band Of Joy album (and she's also in his touring band). And like Band Of Joy, Downtown Church was produced by the great Buddy Miller.

Like Buddy, Patty is part of the sort of "parallel" Nashville scene (I don't really want to use the "a-word"). Artists like Lucinda, Emmylou, Earle and Miller, who are surely country and yet are ignored by the country music establishment. This album is more gospel based than most of her albums, and in fact was recorded in a church in downtown Nashville.

There are a few guests here: both Millers (Buddy and his equally talented wife, Julie Miller),  Emmylou Harris and Shawn Colvin all pitch in, but it's Patty's show.   It's a combination of originals and covers, including Hank Williams' "House Of Gold" (which Willie Nelson also covered on his new album, Country Music), and traditional songs like "Death's Got A Warrant" and "If I Had My Way." Yes, these songs have been done before.  But to my ears, they haven't been overdone, and in fact, I think that Patty does a service by keeping them alive for a new audience to hear. Beyond that, she makes them her own.  She has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard, she can sing the phone book and I'd probably like it. But singing these incredible songs of faith and love... it actually is "divine."

BEST OF THE 00s: BUDDY & JULIE MILLER

In June of 2008, Americana music magazine No Depression put Buddy Miller on the cover of their final issue, naming him "Artist Of The Decade." You can read the entire cover feature here. I've been a fan for years, ever since I sat next to his mom at an Emmylou Harris concert (he was playing guitar in her awesome backing band, Spyboy, and he was also the opening act).

I think he was a great pick, but I'd expand it a bit to also include his wife, singer-songwriter Julie Miller as well. I tend to overromanticize things, but I love the fact that they have been married for over two decades and still create great art, up to and including last year's Written In Chalk, one of my favorite albums of 2009.

Buddy and Julie have put out great albums together and seperately over the past decade (but they tend to "guest" on each other's "solo" albums. But they've had a big impact in music, outside of their own records.  Buddy, as I mentioned, plays in Emmylou Harris' backing band, as well as Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' band, and in John Fogerty's band. He produced a great Solomon Burke album, Nashville, and Allison Moorer's Mockingbird. And he's worked with Levon Helm, Miranda Lambert, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Frank Black and The Chieftans, among others. Julie's songs, meanwhile, have been covered by Emmylou (including "All My Tears," one of Emmy's greatest moments), Miranda Lambert and The Dixie Chicks.

They aren't famous and they probably prefer it that way - look at the cool stuff they get to do, and they can probably walk down the street unhassled - but if you are reading this blog, you are a music fan and you owe it to yourself to check them out. Try Written In Chalk, but there are lots of other great albums to try: 2008's The Best Of The High Tone Years is a good starting point. I really dig their 2001 album Buddy & Julie Miller.

BEST OF '09: BUDDY & JULIE MILLER'S WRITTEN IN CHALK

I've already written about Buddy & Julie Miller's album, Written In Chalk.

It's too bad that more people don't know about this remarkable couple. Julie has been keeping a lower profile lately, but Buddy has been playing in John Fogerty's band, (after having played in Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' touring band, Robert returning the favor by duetting with Buddy on a cover of Mel Tillis' "What You Gonna Do Leroy" on this album). He also toured with Emmylou Harris, Patti Griffin (both of whom guest on the album as well) and Shawn Colvin on the "Three Girls and Their Buddy" tour. He had a health scare during that tour, but I saw him perform with Fogerty's band recently, and he looked and sounded great. Anyway, Buddy and Julie never get a lot of hype, I doubt they'd want it anyway, but you should check out their solo albums as well as the ones they record together, including this one.

Other Best of '09 albums: Bob Dylan's Together Through Life , The Cocktail Slippers' Saint Valentine's Day Massacre , Rancid's Let The Dominoes Fall, N.A.S.A.'s Spirit Of Apollo , Levon Helm's Electric Dirt

THE GRAMMY'S "AMERICANA" CATEGORY

The Grammys have added an Americana category this year. Which is
cool: most of my favorite records this year fall into that category: Bob Dylan's Together Through Life (my favorite album of the year), Levon Helm's Electric Dirt, Buddy & Julie Miller's Written In Chalk (which could have been called "Together Through Life" if Bob hadn't taken the title), Willie Nelson & Asleep At The Wheel's Willie & The Wheel and Elvis Costello's Sacred, Profane and Sugarcane. I might throw in Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood's solo album, Murdering Oscar. All of which you can hear on SIRIUS XM's excellent Outlaw Country channel!

A GREAT ALBUM YOU SHOULD HEAR: BUDDY & JULIE MILLER'S WRITTEN IN CHALK

One of my favorite albums of the year is one that hasn't gotten much hype, Buddy & Julie Miller's Written In Chalk. I've written about Buddy before, he's a great artist, and so is Julie. Buddy has played in Emmylou Harris' backing band, he's played for Steve Earle and for Lucinda Williams, and more recently in the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss touring band. Julie Miller's songs have been covered by Emmylou, The Dixie Chicks and even Brooks & Dunn. Buddy and Julie each make great solo records, and they always guest on each other's albums, but they also make wonderful albums together like this one.

It's a wonderful "Americana" type album. Buddy sounds more country than most "country" singers, and Julie just has a sadness in her voice that can make you ache. But there's a lot of fun parts to the album: the opening track, "Gasoline and Matches" is sexy and fun, and a cover of Mel Tillis' "What You Gonna Do Leroy" featuring Robert Plant himself is rollicking. But "Long Time" could have been a late night torch ballad from the '40s and "Every Time We Say Goodbye" is as sad as it sounds. Someone more popular could have a monster hit with "Don't Say Goodbye" (sung here by Julie and Patty Griffin) - hopefully it won't be a bombastic over-the-top diva. You can buy a few songs on iTunes, but treat yourself and get the whole album.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: U2's NO LINE ON THE HORIZON

It's all about U2. I love them, I've been a fan for about twenty-five years now, pretty much since the War album. I'm excited about their new album, No Line On The Horizon. I don't love it yet, but it is growing on me. True, I don't give most albums numerous spins, but most albums aren't released by U2.

No Line was produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, after the band started working with Rick Rubin and scrapped those sessions. I wonder what those songs were like, and if the band would have been better off sticking with Rubin's approach of, you need great songs before you even go into the studio (not traditionally how U2 works).

I'm also going to bring up U2's recent controversy: they've moved their base of business operations to Holland because Holland has more lenient tax laws than Ireland, and as a result people are protesting the band, and saying that Bono is a hypocrite. Does this kind of thing matter to you when you are listening to an artist? Or does an artist's work outside of the band (or outside of music) distract you from enjoying the band?

If there's time, I'll talk about My Chemical Romance's cover of Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row" which they recorded for the Watchmen film (which I can hardly wait to see), and new music by Buddy & Julie Miller (get well soon, Buddy!), Justin Townes Earle (son of the great Steve, but take him as his own man) and Outlaw Country/Willie's Place DJ Dallas Wayne.

Next week: the long-overdue and somewhat controversial new album by Chris Cornell, and also Kelly Clarkson's new album. Yes, that one.

BUDDY MILLER - GET WELL SOON

Buddy Miller is a great artist who I've written about before. He's a great guitarist (he plays in Emmylou Harris' backing band Spyboy and played in Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' backing band) producer (having helmed albums for Solomon Burke and his lovely wife, Julie Miller) and he's a great singer/songwriter in his own right. Recently, he's been on the "Three Girls and Their Buddy" tour with Emmylou, Shawn Colvin and Patty Griffin. The other night, after the show, he wasn't feeling well and went to the hospital, where he had heart surgery. Here's hoping for a quick recovery.  In an odd bit of timing, Buddy & Julie's new album, Written In Chalk, comes out on Tuesday.