Miller Anderson - Bright City (Remastered Edition)

Before the 1971 release of his debut solo album Bright City, Miller Anderson spent time in the mid to late sixties working with Ian Hunter, and also recorded four studio albums and one live album as vocalist and guitarist with the Keef Hartley Band.  After signing with Deram as a solo artist he went into the studio and recorded not only that album, but also a second album that was released in 1973 under the band name Hemlock (that album was reissued by Esoteric Recordings last year -check out my review here - The Music Korner - Hemlock).  Esoteric has now released the remastered and expanded version of Bright City.  Just like with the Hemlock album there are similarities to his work with the Keef Hartley Band, but there is definitely a lot here that stands out on its own.  The album kicks off with a big organ intro at the beginning of “Alice Mercy (To Whom It May Concern)” leading into a soulful six minute plus track that shifts between more laid-back passages and powerful rock before closing like a soft English folk tune with vocals, gentle acoustic guitar and flute courtesy of Lyn Dobson, who played with artists like Keef Hartley, Soft Machine, Nick Drake, The Small Faces and Manfred Mann.  The track does have a slight drawback.  While he is an outstanding vocalist, for some reason there are times in this song where they are a little high and just don’t really work as well as when he settles into his range.  “The Age of Progress” is a beautiful folk tinged tune fleshed out with piano and organ with an extremely powerful, soulful vocal performance from Anderson and some great backing vocals from Madeline Bell, Liza Strike and Tracy Miller.  He kicks things up a notch on “Nothing In This World”, a ragged bluesy rocker that does a great job of showcasing his guitar work and also has a hint of funk, courtesy the organ work.  Junior Campbell, founding member and guitarist of Marmalade, provides orchestral accompaniment on the next two tracks, and while it works brilliantly on the title track, an absolutely gorgeous folk ballad, the same can’t be said for “Grey Morning Broken”, which also incorporates a flugelhorn and is a lightweight ballad that comes across like an attempt at creating an easy listening hit, and is by far the worst track here.  Coming in at eight minutes, “High Tide, High Water" is a killer blues rocker with a bit of a loose jam feel where all the pieces come together perfectly.   Anderson really showcases his vocals and guitar work, and everyone else is given the opportunity to stretch out a bit.  Album closer “Shadows ‘Cross My Wall” starts with a gorgeous acoustic guitar, flute and vocals reminiscent of Nick Drake then adds some congas to create a hypnotic folk tune with a bit of rock.  In addition to the remastered version of the album there are nine bonus tracks starting with “Another Time, Another Place”, which was the b-side to the single for the album’s title track.  The laid-back, acoustic guitar driven ballad is nicely enhanced with some orchestration and flute and has traces of Tim Buckley and Nick Drake.  It a mystery why this track wasn’t included on the album, because it is just as strong as any of them.  The remaining eight bonus tracks were taken from two different sessions that were recorded for the BBC on September 13, 1971.  The first four were recorded in the morning at the BBC Maida Vale Studios in London for the Sounds Of The Seventies Show and the second four were recorded later that day at the Paris Theatre for John Peel.  Both sets open with “To Whom It May Concern”, which is actually the acoustic section at the end of the album’s opening track “Alice Mercy (To Whom It May Concern)”, followed by “Shadows ‘Cross My Wall”.  While they come across sounding pretty close to the album versions, the second set does seem a little sprightlier and "Shadows..." is stretched out more on the second with a little more improvisation from Dobson on the flute.  At the time these shows were recorded the next track “On A Ship To Nowhere” hadn’t yet been released, but would then show up the following year on the aforementioned Hemlock album.  It’s a haunting track with a hint of slow jazz, featuring acoustic guitar, piano, flute and a very heartfelt vocal.  Again, the second version is longer and interestingly while the flute is very prominent here, it didn’t end up on the album version.  After three fairly mellow tracks they close the morning show with an explosive version of “Alice Mercy” and a raw, jam filled “High Tide, High Water” later in the day where the band is absolutely on fire.  The CD booklet includes the original artwork as well as an informative essay.  Another outstanding release from Esoteric made all the better with the fantastic bonus tracks. Following the breakup of Hemlock, Miller went on to play with numerous bands and musicians including Savoy Brown, T Rex, The Spencer Davis Group, Mountain and Deep Purple before finally releasing his next solo album in 1998.  Since that time he has released numerous more solo releases and still performs and releases new music today.  

(Esoteric Recordings)