The Legendary Fred Miller - A Light In The Darkness

Hear The Track Here

The second newbie (at least to me) and the last review track of the month comes from a man who appears to be a legend. Now you would need a whole new set of cojones if you went into this lions den we all inhabit and called yourself legendary - either that or not give a f*** what people think. I go for the latter meself, and say good on yer mate. Judging by his page, Fred (or should that be Ledge for short?) specialises in rock styles so quite why I should end up with reviewing the only folk rock tune on that page, is beyond me. Especially when you consider that this is a genre that has never sat too well with me. Too many days and nights spent listening to earnest young men mumbling into their beards and getting drunk on cider.

Or was that hippies??? Why is my mind suddenly blank?

The funny thing is that I tried really hard to bite down on my own predjudice and listen with an open mind, I really wanted to like what Fred was doing. I've read his forum postings and he seems like a decent guy, but hey if I wasn't honest about what I was hearing, what is the point of reviewing? So, bearing in mind that this track may not be indicative of what Fred gets up to in other genres, let's see why it failed to impress. I know we all labour under various inadequate recording situations and that will affect what our music will sound like, but this track suffers from more than that. Putting all predjudice aside, while this is undeniably folk rock, its not very well thought out folk rock.

There is definitely a certain charm about Fred Miller vocally, he has a good, strong voice although not best treated in this mix. Having said that I should also add that it is probably an acquired taste too. What particularly didn't work for me were the odd timing errors, shown more than anything in the incredibly pedestrian drum track and the very ordinary arrangement. Come on Gilmore, you cry, what do you expect?? Well, I expect to hear something consistent, punchy and to the point and this definitely misses the target. There again, I haven't experienced the rock side of Mr Miller as yet so I'll just hold my (bad tempered) tongue for a while and see what else is on offer.