Blueberry Hill - Long Walk To Wilmslow

Hear The Track Here

'I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill' goes one of the all time great rock songs, recorded in 1956 by Fats Domino it was an extremely influential track, so that's me won over to this artist right there :) Blueberry Hill is a new name to me from Soundclick (first one this month though) and a quick perusal of the band page will show that the name might be new, but the names behind it certainly aren't. Kevin Miller is an artist you may have come to like as much as me, especially when he drags his family into the proceedings. The natural progression to that is for them to become an actual band and - wonder of wonders - here she be. Kevin (guitar, vocals, mandolin) is joined by wife Sarah (bass), daughter Aida (guitar, mandolin, vocals) and son Forrest (banjo, jawharp) and they comprise Blueberry Hill and, if you go by the instrumental lineup a bit of yeeeaahhh is winging our way. A bit of a Kevin Miller specialty btw.

We've actually heard this band under his name on both One Big Happy Family (May 2010) and Bluebird Train (March 2011) so if you liked them, it should be more of the same high class country right? After all, Bluebird Train was a sublime bluegrass track, a real proper American country song. Thanks to the tender ministrations of Mike-K I have developed a taste for real country (ie not Nashville) but the back roads, sitting on the porch country. Long Walk To Wimslow was written by Kevin but could easily have come from any professional country musician such is the strength of his songwriting and his sureness about the genre. The most telling point I should leave to Kevin to explain. 'This is our newest song' he says 'Just a quick recording out on the front porch' he adds. So, live then, as it happens and THAT is what I am talking about.

The track scored a number one in both the country and bluegrass charts, and that is no surprise. The real surprise is that it sounds good enough to eat (if you know what I mean) considering it is live and it would seem a bit churlish to gripe about anything. So smooth and relaxed a track as this is going to bliss you out something rotten, especially if - like me - you like bluegrass as a musical form. It could just as easily be said that this is a straight forward country song, with a chorus that grabs you from the get go. Personally I think I detected some hesitation in the track, a restraint that doesn't do the track adequate justice. This came from the backing vocals for one,and it shouldn't. Aida sings beautifully but I don't think she knows it yet, and secondly the instrumental solos were a little tame too but - believe me - this is nothing when you have a track as good as this.

Excellent. Highly Recommended sittin' on the porch Country