VAL MINDEL and EMILY MILLER: Close To Home
VAL MINDEL and EMILY MILLER
Close To Home
Yodel Ay Hee 0085
Val Mindel and Emily Miller aren’t siblings like a lot of their close-harmony idols, but as mother and daughter they stay true to that family vibe. Close To Home is the followup to 2006’s In the Valley; Emily has been busy since with her country & rockabilly band the Sweetback Sisters, but there’s no place like home, and this CD sounds every bit as comfortable as if there had been no interruption.
The general spirit of the album is a love-letter to early country music of many stripes, presented mainly in a country-folk setting. It follows a pattern of sorts, starting with country blues and then following country classics through to bluegrass before ultimately coming full circle with an a capella ballad. Liners comment on the journey each song traveled to get to the record, and sources include old recordings, folk revival interpreters, and local singing pals. The varied selection keeps the record sounding fresh throughout, as does the accompaniment. Dominated by the guitar of Emily’s husband Jesse Milnes is, the settings are minimal and never bland, with subtle dobro, electric guitar or bass as needed to complement the vocals out front.
Close To Home opens with a pair of blues pieces, Blind Roosevelt Graves’s “I’ll Be Rested” and Blind Boy Fuller’s “Weeping Willow.” Both are very well handled, capturing the spirit of the originals without sounding imitative. The harmonies in particular recall some early country adaptations of blues repertoire, but also recall the best of the folk revival’s coffeehouse blues.
The album then spins into some country classics. On “Lonely Street,” Val credits the version by Kitty Wells for inspiration but the song has never sounded more heartbreaking, and it’s on this track the fuller production is used most effectively, with a simple backbeat and perfect-sounding, crunchy but quiet electric guitar rounding it out. They take a different tact on Hank Williams’s “Crazy Heart,” turning it into a raggy fingerpicked piece. After Jimmy Martin’s ‘Mr. Engineer,’ the country section rounds out with Roger Miller’s more difficult “My Pillow,” which Emily nails with confidence.
The final several selections on the album draw more closely from bluegrass and old-time music, starting with the Delmores’ “Remember I Feel Lonesome Too” with Val and Emily, and Jesse’s fingerpicked accompaniment, marrying the country melody and blue notes in a perfectly high, lonesome way. Other sources include the Carter Family, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Missouri singer Bob Dyer (with what seems to be the most recent composition on the record), Flatt & Scruggs, and Arkansas singer Almeda Riddle.
While the album provides a survey of various strains of country music, it never feels like a compilation, tribute or random assortment, and it’s completely devoid of any pretension. You can sit back and enjoy it in the background, but a careful listen, and attention to the source material, reveals the record as a road map through the artists’ interests, passions, and appreciations. Carefully planned sequencing augments the trip, and consistency in presentation makes the transitions between sections educational, but also smooth, honest and enjoyable.
— Dan Greenwood