Live CD captures vocal and guitar prowess, strong songwriting

CD review by Bob McKillop

The music of Peter Miles is about richness and texture and range.  The rich dynamics in his guitar work.  The textures in the timbre of his voice.   His impressive vocal range.

All of these qualities are plentiful in his live CD, “Live Life Live”, which he released in 2007.  The music was recorded by Frank Dickinson and David Spinozza (Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, James Taylor) in an Italian restaurant in Vermont.  The tracks are nicely compressed, with a prominent low end, and are mixed well.  There is just enough crowd noise to let you know it’s there, and it doesn’t interfere with the music at all. Miles’s music is exclusively vocals and guitar, and the production on the disc gives both elements their due.

Miles is a very talented guitarist, but his voice is his most distinctive instrument.  I’m reminded of Christopher Cross; perfect pitch, great range, and a spectrum of textures from silk to sandpaper.

This is a disc of ten of Miles’s original pop/blues tunes and two covers: The Clapton hit “Change the World” (written by Tommy Sims, Wayne Kirkpatrick, and Gordon Kennedy) and Lennon and McCartney’s “Mother Nature’s Son”.  Miles interprets the two covers nicely, bringing his own jazzy pop vocal style to the arrangements, and contributing two very original and entertaining guitar arrangements.

Miles’s songwriting is predominantly narrative in style, lyrically unstructured, with fewer hooks than we typically hear in this type of folk/pop tune.  He writes for his voice, creating rich guitar parts that embellish his vocal style by filling in the between the lines: there is very little quiet space on this disc.  A few of these songs sound somewhat alike in style, but there is enough variation across the tracks to escape the peril of some songwriting vocalists who release CDs that sound like a continuous track of the same music.  Indeed, there are songs here that stand out very nicely against the backdrop of the rest of the tunes.

The opening track is “Ride On”, and describes a morning parting between a construction worker and his lover, and the ruminations of that worker on his work, his life, and the physical and metaphorical aspects of his job.  There is a nice rhythmic difference between the verses and the chorus that keeps us engaged, and the experiential descriptions bring us close to this person’s life.

The next track is “Fine Blues”, and is a classic example of that genre, but not trite or derivative: Miles manages to come up with some original lines.  The guitar work is dead on the beat, and the vocal interpretation is easy and familiar; Miles obviously enjoys singing this song.

Another good bluesy number later in the CD is “The Time is Gettin’ Right”.  Miles makes great use of repetition here, to add some funk.  This is a lament by a guy who is feeling a little constricted in his relationship and wondering if it’s time to go.  The guitar riff is pleasantly rough and ready, adding to the theme.

“The Truth is Enough” is, lyrically, Miles’s most sophisticated song.  He includes great images in the story; it’s about someone who tries, but can’t embrace the truth.  His entreaty is that

“The truth is enough, no lies

It’s not too much, just try

You’ve got to face your time

Cause when it all boils down

We’ll be forced to the ground

All but the truth will be stripped away”.

This is great music to cook by, or to listen to while reading a good book.  The music is engaging and the lyrics prick one’s mind and keep it alert, serving as a catalyst to further enjoyment of your task.  The several outstanding songs on this CD  deserve more attention and focus.  The vocal performance and the guitar work are flawless.

Peter Miles has gigs booked in southern Maine and Vermont throughout November and into December, including Café Sabego in Raymond on November 19, and the Seagrass Bistro in Yarmouth on November 28 and December 18.  For Portland dates, he plays Andy’s Old Port Pub on November 14, and RiRa on December 10.  Please go see him in a live performance:  I have caught his set a couple of times, and it is definitely worth the trouble to go find him.  You can purchase and download tracks from this CD from his mypace page: http://www.myspace.com/milessongs, and order the physical CD from CD Baby at http://cdbaby.com/cd/petermiles .