Album Review- Buddy and Julie Miller - In The Throes

 Every review I have read of Buddy and Julie Miller’s new album “In the Throes” reads about the same.

They do have as much as claim to the title “the First Couple of Americana” as anyone. This is their fourth album since they started recording as a duo in 2001. Buddy has several solo albums, a disc with Jim Lauderdale, and a career as artist, producer, and songwriter going back to 1975. Julie started out (as her good friend Sam Phillips had) as a Christian music artist before branching out into more Americana fare.

They have - individually or collectively- worked with everyone in Americana. Scan their respective Wikipedia pages and see names like Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Shawn Colvin, Kinky Friedman, Lucinda Williams, Solomon Burke, Robert Plant, Patty Griffin, Innocence Mission, Victoria Williams, Richard Thompson, Levon Helm, Elvis Costello, Frank Black, Midnight Oil and countless others

If you know me, you won’t be surprised that I found about them via their work with Steve Earle. Buddy Miller played lead guitar on the El Corazon tour and produced the Colvin and Earle record. Earle sang vocals on the last Millers album.

In the 80s, it seemed like the most talented artists would find large audiences even when not played on the radio by finding alternative paths and word of mouth. I think, it’s true then, that in the 2020s, the most talented musicians will find an audience somehow through word of mouth and alternative streams, and so Buddy and Julie have quite a following.

In the Throes is a fine addition to a great catalog. I have to admit that at 67, Julie’s rasp adds a gravitas that makes their songs so appealing, but the interaction of the two is also a draw - something inherent in a married couple -a bit like John Doe and Exene or Richard and Linda Thompson. In the Throes is a mix of styles- the duos’ Bandcamp calls if a mix of gospel, blues, rockabilly and R&B.

Also of note, “Don’t Make Her Cry” is a Bob Dylan songwriting credit shared as it evolved from a song that was handed by Bob with origins in a 1978 conversation to Regina McCrary to the Millers.

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