Julie and Buddy Miller have been making music together for more than 20 years and have been married for 15, although you wouldn’t know it from the loneliness, heartache and yearning that fill their songs. It’s when they sing together that the depth of their bond becomes apparent, as they wrap their voices around each other’s in spellbinding harmonies.
Those harmonies were front and center from the first notes of the Nashville couple’s two-hour set at Schubas Thursday night. Opening with Bob Dylan’s “Wallflower,” the stately mix of their voices conveyed a longing for closeness as they beckoned a reluctant partner to dance.
Although a sturdy rhythm section accompanied Buddy’s thrilling electric guitar and Julie’s rhythmic strumming on a frequently-in-need-of-tuning acoustic, many of the most striking moments came when they began and ended songs with their voices alone. For the spooky “Don’t Listen to the Wind,” Julie’s hushed singing shrouded Buddy’s pensive delivery like a ghost, while “Take Me Back” suggested the warm glow of home and hearth.
Like all good partnerships, the Millers gained strength from their complementary differences. During their turns at lead vocals, Julie occasionally recalled Rickie Lee Jones with her waifish, gauzy soprano, while Buddy sang in a rugged, wiry tenor. The variations in texture made their choruses all the more potent, giving an earth-and-sky quality to their harmonies on “100 Million Little Bombs” and on “Dancing Girl,” as Julie sent a note flying wildly overhead on the final chorus.
This dichotomy extended to the songwriting on the three recent CDs from which most of the concert’s songs were taken. Writing on her own for the pop-flavored “Blue Pony,” Julie depicted a fragile sensibility struggling with a turbulent world, while the songs the Millers co-authored for Buddy’s 1995 debut and his sublime sophomore effort, “Poison Love,” were mostly straightforward ballads and frisky honky-tonk.
What the songs all share are insistant melodies and fresh arrangements. “Forever My Beloved” incorporated the dark, wild drones of Celtic music, “My Love Will Follow You” and Buddy’s reflective version of the Otis Redding classic “That’s How Strong My Love Is” mixed country with blue-eyed soul, and his swirling, ringing guitar solos called to mind the virtuosity of Richard Thompson.
As brilliant as his playing was, though, it couldn’t equal the thrill of Buddy and Julie Millers’ voices together, particularly near show’s end, as their voices stretched heavenward one last time, striving for ultimate union.
