Buddy Miller
From Richard Thompson and Emmylou Harris, to the hit TV show Nashville, record producer and session guitarist Buddy Miller is seriously in demand. Here, he explains how he took the long road to Music City success
Icame to Nashville with a two-inch tape machine and just hoped to start up a home studio, get some work and do some gigs. I thought, ‘How much worse can it be than LA?’” Now, more than 20 years after he arrived in Music City, Buddy Miller must reflect that things have turned out pretty well. That is, of course, if he ever has the time. When he’s not producing the hit US TV series Nashville, or careering around the globe playing guitar with the likes of Robert Plant, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Steve Earle, the Grammy Award winner is hunkered down in the recording studio that occupies the ground floor of his home. Oh, and in between times he works with his wife, Gospel singer Julie Miller, and has a weekly radio show with fellow Grammy winner and country singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale.
“I have this attitude, I guess from being so broke for so long,” Buddy begins. “After that I had this mentality of any work that comes along, I had to take it – anything! You have to pay bills and I like to work. I wish I’d moved here 20 years before I did. As far as music goes, there’s no place like it. There’s an awful lot of quality music coming out of this town, even though you might not think that when you turn on the radio,” he laughs. “That’s one of the things that kept me from moving here when I lived in California. I was thinking, ‘Well, you haven’t tried Nashville yet, but I guess that’s the bottom of the barrel!’”
It’s easy to understand why his guitar playing is in such demand. Buddy Miller is the consummate sideman. To see him on stage with Robert Plant’s Band Of Joy is a textbook exercise in how to make your presence felt, without overplaying your hand – whether he’s adding double-note country bends on his 60s Wandre guitar (he’s been called “the best Tele picker without a Telecaster”) or laying down huge washes of ambient sonic wizardry with his Danelectro Baritone.
Rags To Riches
Raised in New Jersey, Buddy came under the spell of country music when he was just out of short trousers.
“At high school, my home was equally distant to New York and Philadelphia, so I got a real mix of stuff. There were great places to hear folk music in New York City, a country music station out of Philadelphia, and I’d also get to see TV shows like The Porter Wagoner Show. I just got hooked on that music,” he recalls. “We didn’t have any money, but if you liked music, it was a good place to live. Later on, I had a friend who worked at the Fillmore East [in New York City], so I also ended up getting drawn into that whole psychedelic scene, bands like Moby Grape and Love.”
After then living in California in band houses with what he recalls were often 12 people and as many dogs, Buddy and his wife, Julie, moved to Nashville. They were, he admits, “completely broke”, but did own a 24-track recording deck, benevolently supplied to Julie by her record company.
“Julie had just been dropped by her Gospel label. She’d taken homemade demos to the record company and they said they were better than the ones she was getting in the studio – she’s sort of ‘unproduceable’, a little too nutty. They said, ‘Take your budget, buy some gear and make a record at your house.’ Now, we didn’t have a house, but they didn’t know that,” Buddy laughs. “But I thought if we played our cards right, we could talk our way into a house in Nashville. The rents were so cheap and, incredibly, though we were totally bankrupt musicians, we were somehow able to talk our way into buying a house. In Nashville, I realised immediately, there was a whole different attitude towards musicians and creative performers. It turned out to be a wonderful place.”
The month after moving to Nashville, Buddy unexpectedly received a phone call from the California-based HighTone
Records. As things turned out, it was a watershed moment.
“They asked if I wanted to do a record with them and did I have songs? Of course, I said yes, although I didn’t have any! We sat down and wrote some and it turned out pretty well – just about every song ended up being covered by Nashville country singers. Then right around that time I heard that Emmylou Harris was having auditions for a guitar player and that was a gig that really resonated with me. She did so much to turn the tide when she came out, always championing songwriters and quality musicians, and there’s something so simple and soulful about her voice, not trying to prove anything.
“I thought, ‘What have I got to lose?’ She might want a country guitar player, but she’d just made the Wrecking Ball album with [producer] Daniel Lanois, and growing up around all those psychedelic albums and the Grateful Dead, I thought I could draw from that, be myself, but do the country bit as well and mush it all together.
“There were about 15 guitar players auditioning and somehow I got it; I was really fortunate. I basically took Daniel Lanois’ place in the band. He’d been out for half a year to a year touring with Emmylou and his rhythm section. I didn’t ever get to see that band, but all those psychedelic references got stirred up through the filter of my hands and evolved into country a little bit. It was a great band and a lot of fun.”
Musical Partnerships
In the years that have followed, Buddy freely admits that he’s rarely had time to draw breath, an endless list of artists
“In Nashville, I realised immediately, there was a whole different attitude towards musicians and creative performers. It turned out to be a wonderful place”
beating a path to his home studio in search of his production skills. And when Richard Thompson camped out at his studio for two weeks for 2013’s Electric, Buddy apparently ended up enjoying a fortnight of guitar lessons. Is it fair to suggest that Richard Thompson is something of an influence on Buddy’s own soloing, we wonder?
“Well, he made his Electric album over here and it was just a joy to sit and watch him play. I was joking about the lessons! I just hope he doesn’t ever listen to my records, though. I know he doesn’t listen to a lot, so I guess he’s never heard me ripping him off,” Buddy laughs. “I have admitted it to him and we’ve often played together, but the first time we traded solos, I thought, ‘Gosh, I don’t have that much to play, because a third of what I play is a nod to Richard Thompson. Here I am playing with him: what am I going to do, play his licks for him?’
“Richard’s a real sweet guy and a very keen birdwatcher. In my studio room, the windows look out to the trees and Richard would be playing a real wild solo and looking out at some bird on a tree. He has that disconnect, where your hands are just working on their own. I like to think that maybe the birds helped him…”
Such rich collaborations continued in his most recent release, Cayamo Sessions At Sea, which was recorded while at sea during the 2014 and 2015 Cayamo cruise festivals and features artists as diverse as Kacey Musgraves, Kris Kristofferson and, again, Richard Thompson. It’s a roots-filled celebration of Americana and one that Miller has been a part of for many years – itself demonstrating further just how Miller’s collaborative spirit has helped earn him the title of one of Nashville’s finest. Buddy Miller’s record, Cayamo Sessions At Sea, is out now on New West Records
“Because I play with women quite a lot, I like to use baritone guitars. When they’re singing in ‘girl keys’, by playing low you can cover the low-end [and] be the bass, but still play some beautiful sparkly stuff”