The more John R Miller, the better.
After last year’s killer album Depreciated, a Whiskey Riff Top 10 Album of 2021, John has continued giving the fans what they want, namely acoustic performances of cuts from the new record played around a campfire, at a warehouse, or in a barbershop.
Do the locations mean something? Is he trying to tell us something? I don’t know, but with how John thinks it’s certainly possible they have some deep, hidden message.
We already saw the Fireside Sessions, “Faustina”, “Shenandoah Shakedown” and “Motor’s Fried”, but he’s been so busy cranking them out there’s a few we missed…
The first performance not from his latest record was “Been Here Too Long” from his 2018 The Trouble You Follow project. It was also the first of the Warehouse Sessions series, where he’s accompanied by his band The Engine Lights.
The song has a Johnny B Goode on weed feel (credit to a great YouTube comment for that one) and tells the age old story of a musician hitting the road for his freedom, leaving a girl behind.
The next edition to the Warehouse Sessions is the first track on Depreciated.
Clearly the inspiration for the album’s title, “Borrowed Time” is has that insanely catchy lead guitar riff that’ll be stuck in my head for a week again now. It’s also got one one my favorite lines from the entire project.
“Borrowed time, borrowed time, Depreciatin’ like a double-wide trailer on top of a salt mine”
The next Warehouse Session was the song covered by Tyler Childers on his Purgatory album, “Coming Down”.
The fiddle is the clear stand out in this performance, I mean holy shit, I felt that in my soul.
We then went back to the Barbershop Sessions for “Firedancer,” a song he wrote after accidentally smoking DMT.
He told the whole story on the Whiskey Riff Raff Podcast, I can’t recommend listening enough. Great conversation with the super interesting mind he has.
Then back to the Warehouse Sessions we go for the lead track on The Trouble You Follow called “Holy Dirt.” Not going to lie, this isn’t one of my favorites of his, but hey, you can’t win them all.
And finally, we got another Barbershop Session with another cut from The Trouble You Follow. “The Wheel” is a very well written song about always being there for someone, no matter where life takes you.
Each verse tends to have the same first and last line, pulling it full circle, like the spinning of a wheel. Very clever.
Sure, it’s a lot to listen too, but her, it’s John R Freakin’ Miller… he’s worth the time.
You may just learn something about life… In fact, I guarantee it.