Salzers

Reviews:

Riding high on awards and kudos for last year's Buddy and Julie Milleralbum, ace Nashville guitarist/producer/sideman (Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris,etc.) Buddy Miller now turns his attention to his fourth solo record, a manicallyeclectic collection that belies his reputation as an alt-country performer.Instead, Midnight and Lonesome genre-skips with a restless glee: oneminute there's straight-up Hank Williams-styled honkytonk ("Wild Card,"featuring the Bob Dylan band's Larry Campbell on fiddle and steel guitar);the next, a quirky ‘50s soul-cum-western swing-goes-lo-fi concoction ("WhenIt Comes to You," which includes bizarre sampling sonics courtesy of ‘70sMattel toy the Optigan); the next, a Cajun-flavored hoedown ("Oh Fait PitieD'Amour"); and the next, a gorgeously smoky cover of Percy Mayfield'sold soul nugget "Please Send Me Someone to Love."

Diversity aside, the heart of the album's appeal is the raw emotion comingthrough on even the most polished numbers. In fact it's bookended by apair of the most nakedly emotional tunes Miller's ever recorded. Openingcut "The Price of Love" is an obscure Everly Brothers compositionwhose filthy guitar twang and sensual, sassy vocals from wife Julie bind eroticismto lamentation with such force as to make your teeth rattle even as your loinsache. And closer "Quecreek," about the rescue of the Pennsylvaniaminers this past July, is a hauntingly poignant country-gospel number aboutthe power of faith: "The miners were buried three nights and three days/But like Jesus Sunday morning all nine men were raised."