After five years of hearing Katie Miller's music in various settings,
and being blessed with the opportunity to accompany her on dozens of songs,
I thought I knew her music almost as well as anyone, but one listen to
this phenomenal CD offering has made me acutely aware of the limitations
of my own vision. This recording is a listening experience that transports
the listener, emotionally and spiritually, to an entirely different plane.
Beautifully recorded, and featuring stellar performances from all the participants,
it stands out among the masses of disposable pop music with the beauty
of a Francesco Hayez painting.
Over the years, I have discovered
a handful of artists, predominantly women, whose music touches me at an
extremely deep emotional and spiritual level: Janis Ian, Rosanne
Cash, Cheryl Wheeler, Catie Curtis, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of the Indigo
Girls, Rickie Lee Jones, Ani DiFranco, SONiA of disappear fear, Donna Andreeff and Winnie
Bergner of Anatara, Kathy Moriarty, Aerin Tedesco, Leah Prentiss, Pamela Ryder, and Katie Miller. There are many
other artists and friends whose music brings joy to my life in various
ways, and limiting the above list to a mere handful is certainly unintentionally
unfair to many. I certainly intend no disrespect to any of the other artists I have accompanied.
The CD opens on a joyous note
with the Caribbean influenced Grass Angels,
an infectious uptempo number. Katie's propulsive rhythm guitar, highlighted
by Tony Miranda's sympathetic percussion and Dave Rosenberg's fretless
bass, lays the groundwork for Katie's strong lead vocal and Kathy Moriarty's
soaring harmonies. All that's missing are the rum flavored drinks
with the little umbrellas.
The mood sombers
with the achingly beautiful September Leaves,
as Katie turns in perhaps her most intimate vocal performance. In
all the time I've known her, I've never heard Katie in better voice than
during the recording of this CD. Kathy's interwoven soprano harmony
lines provide the perfect counterpoint and completes the aural landscape
created by Katie's finger picked guitar, Rosenberg's subtle fretless bass,
and Katie's heart-rending alto. As many times as I've heard or played
on this song, it never fails to reach me at the core of my existence.
I remember the first time
Katie shakily played Movie Screen,
then known as the Knife Song, at Nietzsche's shortly after the incident
which inspired it, during a memorable gig which we shared with Pamela Ryder
and Kathryn Koch of Redheaded Stepchild. The song has changed a bit
in the intervening months, mellowed, as perhaps we all have, but it paints
a nonetheless powerful psychodramatic portrait. The CD version
is layered with otherworldly voices driven along by Tony Miranda's percussive
colors and Dave Rosenberg's fat but unobtrusive bass lines. Happily,
the beast succumbed.
Before
may be the most complex song portrait on the menu, from the opening triad
of spoken word dream sequences, with disembodied voices echoing the protagonist's
thoughts, hypnotic guitar accompaniment augmented by Rosenberg's soulful
fretless bass, the song builds in intensity, culminating in an aural simulation
of an out-of-body experience before returning to this earthly plane.
Kathy Moriarty's ethereal harmonies provide the perfect sound colorations
in just the right places. A very moving track.
I
remember standing slack jawed at Nietzsche's the first time I heard Closer
to God, shortly after Katie and Char returned
from the Caribbean a little over a year ago. Unaccompanied save for
her minimalist acoustic guitar, Katie's lyrics are simultaneously questioning
and reaffirming. Perhaps the highest compliment I can bestow on Katie's
music is that it, indeed, makes me feel closer to God. In a world
that is oft times cruel and ugly, where self-appointed demagogues preach
hate as God's word, I consider myself blessed to know a soul of such spiritual
purity,
As a guitarist, I live for those transcendent
moments when two or more souls meet within the creative process to create
unit a that is greater than the sum of the individual parts. Katie
was the first among a growing list of predominately female singer-songwriters,
including Pamela Ryder, Erica Pedro, Tina Crapsi, Leah Zicari, Aerin Tedesco,
LeaW Prentiss, Anatara, Mari Anderson, and
Shelley Miller to take my playing to a higher plane. Feed
the Fire has always stood out among the highlights, and remains
one of my all-time favorite playing experiences.
The studio version is a bit more subdued than the
often frenetic stage performances, and we favored a mellower jazzy tone
than the reverb drenched treble tone that I utilize onstage. Engineer
Ken Rutkowski did a wonderful job in allowing all the individual components
to have clear voices without muddying the overall sound of the track.
As usual, the vocal performances are impeccable, and the track has strong
potential as a radio friendly single. I am so honored to have been
chosen to contribute to this project.
I fell in love with Years
Ago at first hearing, again during a gig at
Nietzsche's. Instinctively, I found the minor key harmonica
hook that graces this recording the first time we played it together, even
though I'd never played a minor key harp before. My harmonica style
is primarily based on the work of John Sebastian, whose harp graced many
a folk recording in the early 1960's prior to his work with the Lovin'
Spoonful, a spare style with a heavy tremolo. Kudos again to Ken
Rutkowski for capturing just the right sound.
Kathy Moriarty turns in her
most inspired vocal performance, including a spine tingling Middle Eastern
flavored wail during the break that wends its way around my understated
guitar lines like a python. Katie came up with the idea in the studio
of having the guitar echo Kathy's vocal rise at the end of the final chorus,
and I love the interplay between the guitar, voice, harp, and fretless
bass that brings the track to its conclusion.
The
Caribbean influence rears its head once again during the title cut.
Executive Producer Dee Pugliese's two young daughters lend their combined
voices to the choruses of Strongest Girl in
the World with
wondrous effect among Tony Miranda's percussive swells and Dave Rosenberg's
complementary bass lines.
One of the things I've always
loved about Katie's music is the way she creates dramatic tension within
a song through changes in tempo, key signature, or both. The contrast
between the lime and coconut verses and the anthemic choruses on Strongest
Girl are a perfect illustration.
The poignant Libby's Song,
an open letter to a friend battling the ravages of cancer, finds Katie
again in a stripped-down environment, just voice and hook-laden guitar,
with devastating impact. Songs like this are nothing if not a gift
from a higher plane of existence.
No words of mine will ever
come close to equalling the experience of hearing Katie perform this heart-wrenching
track, and seeing the emotion in the faces of those she touches, only to
hear Libby's voice admonishing 'what are you crying for? I'm not
dead yet...' Rock on, sister...
I first heard
Fly on a cassette
recording that Katie had done on her 4-track shortly after it was written.
The bluesy melody struck an immediate responsive chord, and the song remains
one of my favorites to play on. I was with Katie in the studio when
she added the marvelous piano overdub, and as much as I would have liked
to have added some guitar lines, I'm really happy that she chose keyboards
instead, as I love her playing.
The best music either moves
me to tears or makes me want to pick up my guitar and jam. Fly
succeeds on both counts.
Happy Birthday, finds
Katie interweaving guitar and spoken word images with a home tape recording
of herself and her father at a young age to create a moving sound collage
to close the CD on yet another poignant note.
In Summary, Strongest Girl
in the World is a recording that I will treasure as long as I draw breath,
and, given the nature of much of the subject matter, perhaps beyond........
After five years of hearing Katie Miller's music in various settings,
and being blessed with the opportunity to accompany her on dozens of songs,
I thought I knew her music almost as well as anyone, but one listen to
this phenomenal CD offering has made me acutely aware of the limitations
of my own vision. This recording is a listening experience that transports
the listener, emotionally and spiritually, to an entirely different plane.
Beautifully recorded, and featuring stellar performances from all the participants,
it stands out among the masses of disposable pop music with the beauty
of a Francesco Hayez painting.
