Freddy Miller – Just Be Yourself
Self-release
www.freddymiller.fr
12 songs – 55 minutes
French vocalist, Freddy Miller, has an interesting background, having only stared singing professionally at the age of 35, after being heard messing around in a basement with some musical friends. A decade or so later, he set up his own band and two years later, in 2017, he released his first album, My Blues. Just Be Yourself is his sophomore release and is a highly impressive collection of 12 self-written blues, soul and blues-rock songs, played by a crack band and superbly recorded by Nicolas Machet and Mickael Rangeard at La Boite a Meuh recording studios in Saint-Aubin-des-Coudrais, France.
Miller’s band comprises Christophe Bertin on drums, percussion and backing vocals (Bertin also wrote or co-wrote the vast majority of the songs on the album), Patrice Cuvelier on keyboards, Anthony Delanoony on bass, Philippe Perronnet on saxophones and Virgil Viard on guitars. They are joined on various tracks by the horn section of Perronnet on tenor sax, Nicholas Barbier on alto sax and Manuel Sudrie on trumpet and flugelhorn. Anaïs and Mathilde Maingot provide backing vocals. Miller himself sings with a deep, raw, gravelly voice that is both compelling and emotionally persuasive.
Just Be Yourself opens with the riff-heavy blues-rock “Give Me A Sign” in which the Deep Purple-esque single note riff and washing organ are balanced by the groovy horn section and the structural dynamics of the song – everyone pulls back at the start of Viard’s solo before launching back in and picking up the pace again (and kudos to Viard for avoiding obvious blues-rock guitar cliches throughout the entire album). The soul-blues of the title track follows, with more lovely keyboard work from Cuvelier. Perronnet’s sax solo lights up the foot-tapping “One More Star”, while “Everything” relies almost entirely on Cuvelier’s piano and organ and the gospel style backing vocals of the Maingot sisters.
The upbeat dance soul of “Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right” leads nicely into the slower “It All Comes Down To Love” with more punchy, powerful horns. The lovely ballad, “Never Gonna Be This Way” opens with a beautiful two-minute organ solo from Cuvelier, leading into a gorgeously melodic solo from Viard and lyrics that acknowledge the undying love a parent has for their child (with what sounds like the kids themselves contributing to the end of the track). “I’m Not Coming Home” benefits from some raucous slide guitar from Viard.
The CD comes beautifully packaged, with a lyric booklet, making this a fine release. It is also fascinating to read what the lyrics actually are, because Miller has a fascinating habit of being sing lines that shouldn’t work, but do. In “Autumn Mist”, for example, he sings “All the colours have changed, the trees start to lose their brown leaves. It’s too cold and grass is almost completely covered. Oh I look away, but I can’t see the landscape clearly. I see only a shadow hidden by the autumn mist.” Which shouldn’t really work. But in Miller’s expert hands (larynx?), the words flow perfectly.
Just Be Yourself is a very enjoyable collection of blues, soul and rock. Highly recommended.
