Album Review – John R. Miller’s “The Great Unknowing”
Rock-Inspired Americana (570.4), Appalachian (#519) and some Hard Country (#510.3) on the Country DDS.
West Virginia’s John R. Miller gratifies a whole host of musical erogenous zones on his new album The Great Unknowing, including honky tonk country, Appalachian folk, feral folk rock, and a few things you’re not sure exactly what to call that get caught up in the hopper as he puts a heaping helping of 16 tracks on your plate to savor. Mr. Miller doesn’t bite off more than he can chew though. He delivers the goods on what’s ultimately a songwriter album graced by strong musical accompaniment.
Even before John R. Miller started sprouting flecks of gray in his hair and beard, he came across as a crotchety old soul in that endearing sort of way. You can tell he’s hard on clutches and brake pads. Sometimes he forgets to shower or eat. He seesaws between benders and sobriety. He tinkers around the house on songs and art projects, sipping on two-day-old coffee and avoiding all of the things he actually needs to be doing. But on used vehicles and putting his meandering life to music, John R. Miller’s a master. It’s erudite insight and perspective, however messy and disorganized its messenger might be.
Where Miller’s last album Heat Comes Down (2023) was curiously understated especially with the vocal delivery, this new one is outright manic and expressive at times. You’ll think you stumbled onto a rock record when listening to the first couple of tracks. There’s a really great country rock song on this album called “Golden Light” written by Dan Baird. Yet when you get to the songs “If You Could Only See Me Now” and “Double Lives” back to back, it’s the most hard country John R. Miller has ever been.
The thing about a John R. Miller song is that it kind of doesn’t really matter what it sounds like. You most certainly enjoy the diversity of influences brought to bear on this project, which helps keep the listener engaged, and frankly, better engaged than Miller’s previous records do. He co-produced the album with his guitar player Adam Meisterhans, and for the most part, really represented these songs well. But it’s really the way John R. Miller bumbles his way into little bits of wisdom, and then captures them for posterity in the slice of life moments of his songs that makes his music so lovable and worth seeking out.
You might have to seek through these 16 tracks to find the songs that most fit your sensibilities though. To put it one way, this album is “a lot.” That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It ultimately becomes a great thing, and works towards what may be John R. Miller’s best album yet. This is not one of those 16 track albums where you chide them for not trimming the fat, though one listen to Miller’s take on “Walk of Life” by Dire Straits is probably enough. But there are a couple of weird decisions like the indie rock production on the song “A World Away,” and the decision to release it as the first single representing the album. Some in Appalachia and beyond we’re a little spooked.
But “A World Away” is an outlier, though it does work better in the context of the album, helping to give the album some more character. Character is not really something it’s lacking in though. Miller provides ample character himself. There’s also a couple of songs with predominant female characters in “Daughter of Night” and “Cornbread and Pinto Beans.” Why paint in shades of fiction when you can be inspired by real life characters who need no embellishment, even if they get a little anyway?
It isn’t just the characters though, it’s the bangers that will keep bringing you back to The Great Unknowing to explore its moments. “Looking For A Place To Die,” “Steering Wheel Drums,” the languid and relatable lines of “Day Drinking,” followed by the reflective moments of “Two Days Clean,” it all keeps you attentive and curious to hear where the story veers next.
When Rounder Records signed John R. Miller a few years back, they probably had visions of Tyler Childers and his arena level success dancing in their heads, especially since it’s a Childers quote about John that often precedes him—something about being the real deal and mapping out the world three chords at a time. But as Childers is jet setting and studying Hinduism, Miller is still trying to get his shit together and keep his tour vehicle running. That has kept Miller hungry, and his music strongly intriguing from its real-world insight and uncommon honesty.
8.4/10
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Purchase/stream The Great Unknowing