It’s not very often that one expects to hear a call for social
\njustice in a music review. Today, however, I’m going to get all
\nindignant about a hideous miscarriage of decency.<\/p>\n
Meet Bill Miller. Bill Miller is the best folk-rock singer
\nyou’ve never heard of. Why haven’t you heard of him, you ask? Easy;
\nBill Miller, because he happens to be Native American, has been
\nalmost invariably promoted and shelved as a ‘Native American
\nmusician’, and put over in the drumming and tree frog section of
\nthe store, where, indeed, no one bothers to go look for great
\nsongwriting ability, fine instrumentation, and the ability to tug
\nat your heartstrings. This is roughly equivalent to putting Barbara
\nStreisand in the Klezmer section, or Janet Jackson in the African
\nWorld Music section. In other words, this is pretty damned
\ndumb.<\/p>\n
Because of this, almost no one has heard of Bill Miller, and
\nthat is an utter and tragic miscarriage of justice. See, Bill
\nMiller can sing, people. Bill Miller can play multiple instruments
\nwith aplomb, grace, and talent. Bill Miller is cool as hell. So as
\na public service, The Daily Vault brings you Bill Miller’s greatest
\nhits collection,
\nSpirit Songs<\/i>, and hopes that you discover it, and him, and
\nget him out of the World Music scary section. Because, dammit, he
\ndeserves bettter.<\/p>\n
\nSpirit Songs<\/i> is, in a word, triumphant. If this is the kind
\nof stuff Miller does, I will be hunting down every single CD he has
\never put out and adding them to my personal musical collection toot
\nsweet. His incredible vocals, guitar playing, flute playing, and
\nsongwriting affected me immediately like few artists have —
\nMiller’s work reminds me of the first time I heard Bill Morrissey,
\nor Phideaux, or James McMurtry. He is, in a word, a genius, and
\nSpirit Songs<\/i> is a great introduction to his work.<\/p>\n
Every track on here is outstanding, but I have particular
\nfondness for the haunting and sorrowful “Dreams Of Wounded Knee”;
\nthe questions without answers of “Ghost Dance”; the sheer joy of
\n“Every Mountain I Climb”; real stories like “Tumbleweed” and
\n“Reservation Road”; and the breathtaking potential in “Underneath
\nThe Blue Sky”, the new track showing the direction we can expect in
\nthe future.<\/p>\n
You owe it to yourself and to common decency to check out Bill
\nMiller. Yes, he sings about Native American issues, but that
\ndoesn’t make him a ‘Native American musician’ anymore than Rush
\nshould be filed under ‘Canadian folk music’. Check out
\nSpirit Songs<\/i> today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6999],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37912","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bill-miller","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37912"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}