Our surroundings—the room we are in, the street we are on, the town we call home, and especially the landscape that acts as a backdrop to our lives—always find their way, purposefully or otherwise, into the music we make. How can they not? These things are constants, perpetual, powerful, and permanent influences that guide our creative hand.
Described as “a cowboy song that was inspired by the southwestern landscape,” “The Heat” sees Aaron Miller, aka Josie Lockhart taking the sound of the music that he grew up with, artists such as Lucinda Williams, Bruce Springsteen, Townes Van Zandt and push their country and heartland rock sounds through more modern sonic filters.
The result is a song that is both full of groove and energy yet which shimmers with a smooth and polished sound, a sort of cosmic cowboy vibe for the modern age, one that employs some unique creative moods by taking instruments such as steel guitar, wurlitzer, and saxophone and underpinning everything with a bed of analog synth.
In its tones and textures, you can picture the majesty of his South Western US surroundings, the shimmering heat haze, the breathtaking beauty, and the grandeur and gravitas of the landscape.
His second album, What Golden Hues, drops at the end of this month, and although this single is my first encounter with Aaron Miller and his Josie Lockhart project, I feel as if I have made a wonderful new musical friend. Sometimes, things just click, I guess.
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