Citation

Here's the bad news first: Scott Miller's new release "Citation" is too short. It clocks in just under 30 minutes. And for a great songwriter, you have to ask "What are you doing with your time? Why can't it be spent writing songs?" A man like Mr. Miller should have more songs than he knows what to do with.

And you can't argue that he's a good editor of his work. One track, albeit only 27 seconds long is studio noise, and 2 whole songs are complete filler. Plus, one is a Neil Young cover (though it's a really frickin good cover).

With that said, wanting more material from an artist is a compliment. "Citation" is a better album than the one before, "Upside/Downside". Sure it doesn't have as anything as good as "Amtrak Crescent" or "Ciderville Saturday Night" but those ones were written well before he made his first album, "Thus Always To Tyrants". But then who can ever follow up an album as good as TATT?

Citation is a very good album. Four stars out of 5.2 stars. This is a work from a writer no one else can match in historical songwriting. His ode to Sam Houston follows 2 main themes in Scott's work; leaving Virginia and people who lived over a hundred years ago. Plus, I don't know how long he's lived there now but I'm sure his Tennessee fans are happy he's finally mentioning his adopted state.

His WW2 song "The Only Road" (co-written with former bandmate Mic Harrison) is solid (though it reminds me a little of those Time/Life Book commercials from a few years back where the announcer would say "A woman in New Mexico falls down a well and screams for help. Two hundred miles away her twin sister feels a sharp pain through her left arm. Coincidence?").

But he also writes about more recent wars. His song "Jody" is a rockabilly-like ode to the soldier stationed far away from his girl. "8 Miles A Gallon" (the most rocking Scott Miller track recorded yet) is an ode to his tour bus but one of the smartest commentaries on the Iraq War I've heard that's out there.

It may take some a few listens to get into this record but I am confident most of Scott's fans will like this one. Some of the songs don't grab you right away. Take the Avett Brothers' new one "4 Thieves Gone" for example- There's an album that grabs you at first and stands up to repeated listens. I love that album and try to convert anyone to the Avetts who havent already joined the church. Yet I find myself reaching for "Citation" over "4 Thieves".

So maybe in 6 months I'll look back on this review and wonder why I seem kinda lukewarm for Citation. Maybe I expect too much from Mr. Miller. Like I said, this is the man who gave us Thus Always To Tyrants. I believe Virginia should be known as the birthplace of Scott Miller and our nation's founding fathers. In that order.

Jim Dickinson produced this record and while he has been at the helm of some of my favorite records of all time (The Replacements' "Pleased To Meet Me" and The Flat Duo Jets' "Go-Go Harlem Baby") I think Scott needs some sort of another partner. Or an editor. Would Scott have released "Only Everything" (my favorite) as a single if the label Sugar Hill didn't? Could he have put more songs on it if Mic Harrison hadn't just dropped by for just one afternoon while he was recording but instead stayed a few weeks? At Scott's live shows he's always joking that he's short on new material. He's not being self-effacing. It's true. But most of what he does write is great. He just needs a partner. Like he had in the V-Roys.