Buddy Miller

Item: Universal United House of Prayer
Author: Steve Stockman

Universal United House of Prayer

(2004)

Reviewed by Steve Stockman

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Label New WestThe Phantom Tollbooth2004

alternative country americana gospel blues roots rock

Universal United House of Prayer is as in your face spiritually as Steve Earle's The Revolution Starts Now is politically and deals with the very same response to the very same war. It is Gospel blues of a most upright sort. No messing or ambiguity. This is the subject matter of the contemporary Christian music industry but with a huge difference - it doesn't sit in a vacuum but gets sung into the worries of the year. Which brings us back to the war.

The cover of Mark Heard's "Worry Too Much" (Is Pierce Pettis's "open every album with a Heard song" catching on!) reveals the mood in the Miller household, Bob Dylan's "With God On Our Side" lays out his position and The Louvin Brothers "There's a Higher Power" points to hope and escape. Not that this is about blind escape. It finds its heart in what the best of traditional Gospel music was - people in slavery well aware of the daily strife but always trusting in a God who cared and watched over them and ultimately would set them free. Where the aforementioned Earle sends a missive to the President or about who the President should be, Miller is bringing wisdom and hope to those who live with the consequences.

It is an astonishingly assured work of faith. "Shelter Me" is seeking the Lord to do just that; "Wide River To Cross" is a confession of stumbling and straying; the co-write with Victoria Williams "This Old World" is about Jesus washing those sins away and challenges a new way to live -- "pray pray/time to love every man woman and child /just forgive and let live for a little while"; "Don't Wait" written with Jim Lauderdale calls for immediate repentance; "Fall On the Rock" written by wife Julie is a judgemental conclusion -- "you better fall on the rock /or the rock's gonna fall on you."

As with all Buddy's albums the playing is immaculate as is fitting of one of the most respected guitar players in his genre. Personally I find the arrangements and production here more organic and authentic than ever. It is bluesy and brooding with deep rooted Gospel joyfulness, politically acute and spiritually tender and erudite. At last, the album that Buddy Miller has always threatened to make.