| As an artist, Buddy Miller wears a lot of different hats well, or in his case, various "gimmie" caps. As a singer and songwriter, guitarist and producer, his work always has a fiery passion and sometimes the calmness of placid waters. So this interview is called Buddy Miller, Fire and Water. Also, because Fire and Water is one of the standout songs on Buddy Miller's brand new album, "Universal United House of Prayer". It's a theme record where both musically and lyrically soul takes the center stage.
Whether you know Buddy Miller from his own albums, his collaborations with his wife Julie, as a guitarist in Emmylou Harris' band for the last eight years, or from songs recorded by artists including the Dixie Chicks and LeAnn Womack, you have never heard Buddy as you will through this conversation focusing on his most personal album to date, "Universal United House of Prayer".
Q: Buddy that song is one of only three on the album you didn't have a hand in writing. It was written by Mark Heard, who died, I believe, in '92. Sounds like it could have been written in this very moment. Tell me just a little bit about Mark and the song.
A: Mark Heard was a writer and a person who had a big influence on me. I just was a fan of his for the longest time. I'd hear his songs and know that there was something really deep going on there. And I became friends with him and his wife, Janet, when we moved to Southern California. That's where he lived. He would make his records in the garage that was part of his house. And I was lucky enough to engineer on the record that that song Worry Too Much was on. And I remember the first time I heard it just being moved by it. It was when the first Gulf War was happening. And he was so disturbed by that. And I was looking for a song of his to do for this record. And just going through his records, that one just jumped out at me as being so relevant today.
Q: And he inspired your wife, Julie's, song, All My Tears, didn't he?
A: When Mark passed away, yeah, she wrote that song. I think that -- the next day.
Q: Is there really a church called "Universal United House of Prayer?"
A: Yeah. It's in Nashville. And it's kind of in the area of the muffler shops. And actually, it's not even there anymore. And -- the picture on the front of the record was taken by Michael Wilson. And we drove around trying to find the church to get permission to use the picture about a year later, and it's just all boarded up. And the beautiful paintings that are on the face of the church are not really as recognizable anymore. There's a -- there's some hands kind of in -- that look like they're praying in the middle of it. It's just a great-looking old building that's now just boarded up.
Q: With a church name like that, it seems that most forms of spirituality would be welcome -- just as anyone with any spiritual background would feel comfortable listening to this new CD. Was that in your mind when you named the CD "Universal United House of Prayer?"
A: Definitely. That's what I loved about the name of that -- of the church. And that's what I loved about the face of the church. It actually didn't make it into the picture. You see the sort of the ghost outline of two faces on either side of the name of the church. And that's just two people that don't look like your average Americans that were depicted there.
Q: The records that you did before this one, they definitely had a light shining through, but they were pretty much filled with love songs. So how did this new album evolve into such a spiritual work?
A: Well, as soon as I finished my last record before this, I knew I wanted to do something different. There had been -- just things going on in my life. I mean, spirituality, it's always been a part of my life, my faith has. And I just think about it a lot, but I never really wanted it to come out in my records. Julie's records have an element of that. But mine, I just kind of keep it in another place. I mean, I had in mind a very different record than what this turned out to be. But I knew I wanted to make this record. And especially with the things going on in the world right now that are so disturbing to me, I just wanted to have a few themes running a parallel course in he record, spirituality being one of them, and just sort of the state of the world being another one, and maybe just sort of mortality.
SONG: There's a Higher Power
Q: Buddy on this album, country and gospel and rock and R&B, they all kind of collide. Can you think of any other artists that have done this or maybe who inspired you to bring all these things together?
A: Well, musically, maybe -- I'm sure I could, if I sat long enough. But I know kind of thematically there were records, like when I was growing up, that meant a lot to me when they were -- like Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, sort of addressed things that were going on in the world and had a -- it was almost like a song suite. It had an element of, you know, just thinking about God in your life and how it applies to everything that's going on and kind of looking at that. Musically, though, yeah, it always kind of mushes up when I make a record. I mean, I just love music and kind of wanted to bring in a bunch of different elements.
I mean, actually, when I was starting to do the record, I wanted to do almost two little records at once. I wanted to do a very country record and involve the McCrary sisters, who are on the record, in the country side of the record. And then do sort of a very rhythmic-based record with Brady Blade and his brother, Brian, together.
We record all of Julie's and my records in our living room. And -- much to the neighbor's dismay. And that's kind of what I started to do, a country record and a rhythmic record. And then it just turned into what it is. And -- whatever that is.
Q: Well, you talked about when you were growing up. How was music a part of your life? I mean, was it the radio, was it going to concerts?
A: It was all of it. And it was so much the radio. Which was so great, which is why it all -- all music I don't think of country or R&B or anything. It was just all one song after another that would be, you know, the Beatles, followed by Skeeter Davis, followed by a soul song that could be followed after that by a R&B version of a country song that was a hit - and if there was a big hit, you'd hear versions of it in all kinds of different genres, which was just so cool. And so I just loved it all and would just listen to it all. And I wasn't very good at playing it, but, you know, I just liked to hang around people that were.
Q: We're talking here today in Austin, Texas, one of many places you've lived over the years. You met your wife and collaborator, Julie Miller, here in Austin, didn't you?
A: At the Rome Inn on a Tuesday afternoon. I had an audition for a band and sang as best I could and played as best I could. And she just wanted to appear discriminating. And they asked her opinion and she said, "Don't hire him, he's no good." And they hired me anyway. And then we started hanging out shortly after that.
Q: About what year was that?
A: '76, I think.
Q: You were born in Ohio. You moved on to Massachusetts, you've lived not only in Austin, but New Jersey, L.A., Seattle, San Francisco. You finally landed in Nashville in 1993. When did you and Julie realize that Nashville was where you would settle down and make your home?
A: We almost moved back to Austin. It was a toss up. I was going to Nashville. I was playing guitar with Jim Lauderdale, just one of my best friends and favorite people. And Jim would go play in Nashville every now and then and I'd go with him. And I just noticed that, man, they -- you know, musicians are almost treated like people in Nashville. And we were living in the L.A. area at the time and just going completely broke. At the end of every month, I'd just look around the room and see what piece of gear or what guitar to sell to pay the rent, which was just huge. And just no way to make it. We just weren't doing good. So I went to Nashville and saw, hey, we could maybe, you know, get a place here somehow. And I came back home. I remember telling Julie just over a plate of spaghetti, "You know, maybe we should try Nashville out." And she said, "Okay!" That easy. And a week or two later, we just went there. We were going there anyway for something. We looked around, found a house in the two days we were there. Packed up a truck and moved.
Q: Now, you've lived in Nashville for about 11 years. For more than eight years, you've played guitar with the
great Emmylou Harris and her band. She sings with you on the next song we're going to hear, which you co-wrote with Julie. It's called Wide River to Cross. What's it like singing and playing with Emmylou Harris?
A: When I joined her band... I auditioned for her band. I had a real bad week of bad gigs. And she had just come out with "Wrecking Ball" and I got that music. I just thought it made so much sense, that record, that collaboration. When I heard it, I went, "oh, yeah," because all the different sources they drew from just made a lot of sense -- and she had one of my wife's songs on it. So I really got it.
Emmylou, when her first record came out, it just completely changed my life musically. I was just so drawn to the music. I loved what she did with the traditional music, and yet putting her own stamp on it. And I just told her this recently.When her first record came out, I was just so moved, I was just, you know, a little hippie kid in a hippie country rock band -- band house with, you know, 14 dogs and 10 guys. And I remember going up to my room after listening to that record for the second time, writing a letter to "Dear Emmylou Harris: I'm a guitar player. I understand and love your music. I would love to play…" -- you know, I wrote a letter wanting to be her guitar player back then, which I'm sure, got tossed, as it should have. But when I went in for that audition, it was like, this is going to be 15 minutes I get to play and maybe sing with Emmylou Harris. You know, years later, every night still blows my mind that I have that voice in my monitor and get to stand next to her, try to keep out of the way and create a frame for that instrument.
SONG: Wide River to Cross |
Worry Too Much
