JC Miller - Blackberry Canes (Tilt Records)

Like all artists who properly understand what Americana music is all about, JC Miller’s songs go far beyond what would be deemed in many other genres, as fulfilling the generic remit. For me, Americana is more than just a sound or style; it is a cultural soundtrack to a history and an essence of American life, in the same way, that the likes of Steinbeck and Lee’s prose is quintessentially of the USA or films such as “The Last Picture Show,” “Cool Hand Luke” or “Urban Cowboy” have a backdrop that can only be that country. Miller not only understands this but “Blackberry Canes,” his new one, adds to that artistic canon.

And if his songs often take a narrative form, a story being told, here, Miller muses more on a restless attitude and unbriddled spirit, taking the tangled but always propulsive growth of the titular plant as his metaphor. Just as they push forward into the light in random and often unexpected ways as the environment changes around them, so our lives also respond in the same way, and as long as we keep moving forward….or backward, sideways, up, down…as long as we keep moving, our lives have meaning.

It is telling that he is back working with producer-engineer Marty Rifkin, a man who can name Tom Petty and Glen Campbell as clients and collaborators and, quite rightly, Bruce Springsteen as his boss in The Sessions Band. His music seems to stem from a magical hallowed ground that sits between such artists and, for most, just out of reach.

Not as ornate as The Boss, not as delicate as The Rhinestone Cowboy himself, and taking a more emotive line than Petty, Miller infuses something of each of them as he creates his own sonic backdrop to American ethos and attitudes, country, and culture.

Miller is an unstoppable force on the Americana scene, not to mention its finest proponent.

Get the ‘Blackberry Canes’ single
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