This new EP by J.C. Miller stretches three songs out over almost 20 minutes of laid-back heartlands country rock, that has been polished and burnished to an impressive degree by J.C. Miller and his band, that includes Bruce Springsteen Alumni Marty Rifkin and Edo Tank Tancredi, recorded at Marty's Santa Monica studio. I will refrain from using the main descriptive in the press release, I wouldn't want to tar music this good with being part of a movement, that was originally used to describe fake Faux music to be avoided, this is very far from that.
Dead Horse Ranch is apparently a place in Arizona, this slowly shuffles into view alongside the Santa Fe railway the lolloping shuffling beat and piano, woven slide guitar decorating this dark twisted tale, amongst the ponderosa pines, over the course of the song a mini-epic unfurls giving plenty of hints at how it became the Dead Horse Ranch, playing slowly like Government Issue and every bit as accomplished, with hints of Tedeschi Trucks, this will appeal to any fans of those bands and similar heartlands bands.
Wayward Son has hit the road again, bawling down the highway in his Cadillac looking to live down to his reputation, back to the old ways and places once more, like it ought to be sung out on the back porch, or by a bonfire with a beaker or two of moonshine sippin' whisky by your side, the more you listen to this the more musical detail will emerge, long before he reaches his crossroads where John Mellencamp and Greg Allman intersect, almost like he's returning after a 5 day 4th July bender never mentioned in the song, he's far too wayward for that, we need that guitar to soar and soar and bounce like a bucking bronco.
Before Nightfall you'll be riding down that trail once more hoping to find redemption at the shack the path leads too, just within sight of the Iron Horse rails, he stumbles into an old saloon, just another stop on the endless road, the trail towards the next gig, something to raise a glass for David Crosby for, this classic country rock song just makes you sit and listen to the mellifluous guitar solo, slowly opening out new direction to travel through.
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