Julie Miller - Blue Pony

The woman in the record store where I bought this (somewhere on the main drag in Newtown, Sydney) told me that it was a beautiful album, and I can see where she was coming from, though other words spring more readily to mind - 'brilliant', for one. Well, maybe 'brilliant' is overstating it slightly, but Blue Pony really is a very good album, mixing country rockers like sparkling opener "A Kiss On The Lips" and the rousing "Dancing Girl" with slower-paced numbers like late album highlight "Face of Appalachia" and out and out country tunes, harmonies and all, like "Take Me Back". Through it all, Miller's extremely strong songwriting voice comes through, as does the distinctive sound she and artistical and marital partner Buddy Miller have hewed out for her, built around her girlish singing voice and the ringing guitars that run through the record.