Higher Plane
Timely new gospel album by Buddy Miller bridges temporal and eternal concerns
by Michael McCall
Buddy Miller
Universal House of Prayer (New West)
Playing 6:30 p.m. Sept. 22 at Tower Records, West End
Buddy Miller's new set of "spirituals," Universal United House of Prayer, might include an ecstatic revival of The Louvin Brothers' "There's a Higher Power" as well as several other songs about turning to Jesus as a source of comfort and strength. It's hardly an album of soothing hymns or shouts of thanksgiving, though. A righteous anger courses through the record's 11 tracks—not toward God, but toward humanity's interpretation of God's will—all of the songs set to an ominous sound that cracks like thunder.
Indeed, the country shuffles and rootsy rockers of Miller's previous albums have been replaced by a raw yet layered mix of blues, soul, gospel and folk. The lyrics cry for justice as souls gather together to find strength in a power they believe is about unity and sustenance rather than force and Miller, of course, is singing about faith during a time of uncertainty, fear and chaos, much of it fueled by religious zealotry and fundamentalism. At the album's center is a seething take of Bob Dylan's "With God on Our Side" that builds in intensity over nine tightly wound minutes. Written during the height of the Cold War, Dylan's 40-year-old lyrics question how any nation can presume that a military mission is a holy one.
The album opens on a similar note, with Mark Heard's searching "Worry Too Much." With lines about bullies, the vanity of nations and tribes in war paint, this soulful stomper establishes Miller's spiritual conflict—not with his own beliefs, but with those of much of the world in which he lives.
The proceedings roll from dark-toned blues to church-based rave-ups to acoustic meditations, from the ferocious "Don't Wait" to the wistful "Wide River to Cross" to the jug-band whimsy of "This Old World." Offering a moment of levity on an otherwise heavy album, the last of these nevertheless cuts to the heart of Miller's message: "Why is war in the heart of man?"
