| Provided By: | The Daily Vault |
Spirit Songs: The Best Of
Bill Miller
Vanguard Records, 2004
REVIEW BY: Duke Egbert
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 04/07/2004
It's not very often that one expects to hear a call for socialjustice in a music review. Today, however, I'm going to get allindignant about a hideous miscarriage of decency.
Meet Bill Miller. Bill Miller is the best folk-rock singeryou've never heard of. Why haven't you heard of him, you ask? Easy;Bill Miller, because he happens to be Native American, has beenalmost invariably promoted and shelved as a 'Native Americanmusician', and put over in the drumming and tree frog section ofthe store, where, indeed, no one bothers to go look for greatsongwriting ability, fine instrumentation, and the ability to tugat your heartstrings. This is roughly equivalent to putting BarbaraStreisand in the Klezmer section, or Janet Jackson in the AfricanWorld Music section. In other words, this is pretty damneddumb.
Because of this, almost no one has heard of Bill Miller, andthat is an utter and tragic miscarriage of justice. See, BillMiller can sing, people. Bill Miller can play multiple instrumentswith aplomb, grace, and talent. Bill Miller is cool as hell. So asa public service, The Daily Vault brings you Bill Miller's greatesthits collection, Spirit Songs, and hopes that you discover it, and him, andget him out of the World Music scary section. Because, dammit, hedeserves bettter.
Spirit Songs is, in a word, triumphant. If this is the kindof stuff Miller does, I will be hunting down every single CD he hasever put out and adding them to my personal musical collection tootsweet. His incredible vocals, guitar playing, flute playing, andsongwriting affected me immediately like few artists have --Miller's work reminds me of the first time I heard Bill Morrissey,or Phideaux, or James McMurtry. He is, in a word, a genius, and Spirit Songs is a great introduction to his work.
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