Words From The Woods
Kim Miller- a sweet Native Texas voice whose music brings the Old World cultures of France , Mexico and the British Isles forward into the 21st century community of singer/songwriters. If you can catch her live, you should."
~ Willis Alan Ramsey and Alison Rogers
March 1, 2007
Risk of the Roar is finished. It was mixed and mastered a couple of weeks ago by Mark Hallman at Congress House Studio and will be released soon. This project has been every bit a journey, starting in Nashville , continuing through Santa Fe and Albuquerque and wrapping up in Wimberley and Austin. Sometimes life intervenes and it took a while for this record to find its feet - but here it comes and I'm grateful for your faith and patience in me as Risk of the Roar evolved.
Many remarkable musicians contributed their talent to this project but the biggest kiss came from Marvin Dykhuis and Cam King. In Nashville I worked with Josh Dubin, Tammy Rogers and Jeff Taylor - Lordy! In Santa Fe and Albuquerque , Vince Bell and Tommy Elskes added their distinctive voices. In Wimberley and Austin the album really started to take shape with Glenn Fukunaga, Paul Pearcy, Andrew Hardin and Chip Dolan. Warren Hood added his beautiful string arrangements and it was a wrap.
I owe an enormous "thank you" to everyone at Knowbility, AIR -Interactive 2007 and Convio, all of whom generously volunteered their time and talent to create my new web site (to be published soon – we took 2nd place at the SXSW Interactive Festival!) Special thanks to Teresa Ferguson and Teenya Franklin with AIR -Interactive and Knowbility, and the Convio team: Jennifer Hodges, Brandy Reppy, Shara Kilarski, Don Roach and Jesse Hodges. Thanks to these folks, my new site has been designed to ensure access to people of all abilities.
Loveing support also came from my dear friends David Schade (smile maker), Connie Moran (coiffure goddess and mountain climber), Ann Seaman (sanity check-ins and editorial detective) and Kay Delcher (sound faith).
Risk of the Roar is set for release in September. Check back soon for record release news and events.
Happy Spring!
Love, Kim
January 1, 2006
Sometimes the world wants a recommitment - you know, knock down the sand castle and start over.... I'm taking some time off to work on the record and write. Be well and I'll be in touch.
October 8, 2005
If we are to covet a thing, why not a view? I love the 360 degree isolation of a deserted landscape and that heady rush of solitude a wild place can give you. Home is a cocoon of tangled woods and cathedral branches. My perspective gets deeper here. It's a compact little patch of wilderness, deceptively close to Austin - a simple panorama and my slice of heaven. It's good to be home.
What I learned in Nashville :
How to plant and harvest a half acre of sweet corn – by hand.
It's not your mama's Grand Ole Opry.
How to co-write.
I had friends there I didn't know.
How to layer clothing.
There's nothing like free-range chicken eggs.
KUT is only a computer away.
The Sequatchie Valley is too beautiful.
That's right, it's not Tex Mex.
It's a long drive.
Take the Natchez Trace anyway.
A year's about enough.
I left Nashville in May, put everything in storage, loaded a mobile studio in the truck and set out to see family and friends between the Mississippi and the west coast.
I caught up withTommy Elskes in Albuquerque and enjoyed Vince Bell and Sarah Wrightson's hospitality in Santa Fe . Vince and Tommy both added their vocal charisma to “Risk of the Roar” and the record is really starting to come together.
I returned to Wimberley in June. There's no place like home.
The life shattering tolls of weather and war have been heartbreaking. I watched with particular concern for my relations and friends in Louisiana as the hurricanes beat down on them. I didn't lose a loved one but Rita destroyed my family's homestead in Grand Chenier and the little community there that they settled. In light of so much devastation and loss of life, I'm inspired by the generosity of my community, friends and family who understand we are all in this together.
That's my news and thoughts for now. I have a couple of performances later this month and hope to see lots of old friends soon.
All Good Things,
Kim
March 7, 2005
My 97 year old Grandmother credits her health and longevity with a willingness to embrace change. She says, "Your life will be more interesting if you do!" This sage advice has led me around the world and, lately, to Nashville.
I've been living on a farm in an oxbow of the Cumberland River, keeping farmer hours, planting and harvesting corn, tomatoes, squash, peppers and basil; collecting eggs, teaching old goats new tricks and riding Jiggy, the appaloosa. There is a little studio here where I work on my CD. Cam King has picked up the production here, coaxing the project in an “organic” direction - keeping the recordings simple and giving the songs plenty of room to "breathe" on their own. It's like putting down one canvas for another; nothing is lost, I'm just exploring a different view.
I've made good friends here and discovered so much beauty in Tennessee , but sometimes my heart really yearns for the Texas hill country and the woods and creeks surrounding the cottage there. Who knows what the future holds...
I've been exploring a new passion: cooking! This café-girl has changed her ways and all I can think is, “What took me so long?” Now I understand that look of thrill on people's faces in the market as they eye and squeeze the ripe ingredient of their next hand-made meal. I could go on with comparisons of songwriting and creating a taste sensation in the kitchen but I think it's been done by many a musical person before me. I've been paying attention to Austin 's own La Reyna Elena. Her zeal for life is intertwined with her recipes. I highly recommend a look at her web site if cooking is your passion too.
I'm excited about a show I have coming up this Friday with Cam at the famous Blue Bird Cafe. It will be our first public performance together. We are playing In-The-Round with an impressive line-up of songwriters; it's going to be a fun show. If you're in this neck of the woods, we hope to see you there.
Cam and I are also performing several shows together in Austin and Wimberley during SXSW. (His band, The Explosives, is scheduled to play as well.) It's all on the Schedule page which I recently learned how to edit so you can check back for regular updates now.
I look forward to the drive "home" to Texas and all the signs of spring along the way. I wish you a refreshing new season full of change, discovery and la dolce vita !
Cheers, Kim
February 15, 2004
There was a rare snow here last night and this morning a winter wonderland scene is framed in each window of the house. A belligerent half-moon loiters in the blue sky and the woods are strung with yellow ribbons of light. Boughs are white and weighed to the ground. It's a quiet and sparkling morning. I love it here.
Welcome to my new web site and this first installment of "Words From the Woods" – a suitable title, I think, for this web-page missive. After all, I did come here to write.
And where is here? I'm about four miles outside of Wimberley, TX and three more up and down a winding caliche road. I'm in the Texas Hill Country – a far cry from the west Texas desert where I grew up. As a little girl, my Permian Basin Brownie troop visited here on proceeds from cookie sales. I remember sneaking off by my myself to the bank of the Blanco River and vowing that I would live here one day. A Girl Scout always keeps her promise.
I've been working in the studio with my friend, Bradley Kopp. We're making my first album in seven years. It's been a slowly-but-surely project and we are finally putting some meat on the bones of it. Glenn Fukunaga and Paul Pearcy – Austin's dynamic-duo-rhythm-section – came in last month. They added their incomparable finesse to the record and left me thrilled with the course this album is taking. Thanks guys! Where the mood of "Child of the Big Sky" was ethereal, this CD is going to be robust and rhythmic.
Next up in the studio is David Webb, maestro pianist and one of my Wimberley friends and neighbors. Both David and Bradley have influenced the way I hear and write music. Working with them these last two years has been one of the biggest musical rewards of my life.
We're about half finished recording "Risk of the Roar." For all of you who have generously and patiently supported the making of this record, you have my deepest gratitude. If it's true that good things are worth waiting for, I give you my Girl Scout promise that this CD will be no exception. Connie Moran, David Schade, Terry Bouse and Kelly Innerarity – you've all earned your arts-support badge, sign of the arrow and wings.
A big thanks to the organizations that made this new page of mine possible. It starts with Knowbility.org, a group of terrifically talented people including Teresa Ferguson, host of KUT's Femme FM show, and Sharron Rush, Executive Director of Knowbility, who are dedicated to supporting the independence of people with disabilities through information technology. Thanks also to David Manzer, VP of Business Development for Primus Networks. These people are the combined force behind the third annual AIR-Interactive that is chaired by Teresa Ferguson and produced in conjunction with the SXSW Interactive Festival.
I was selected for this year's AIR-Interactive competition and paired with an award winning team from UT's Center for Instructional Technologies – lucky me. Thank you Suzanne Rhodes, Elias Ponvert, Malaika Boyd and Egan Jones who have volunteered their time and immense talents to create this web site. And this isn't just another pretty page – they designed it to be accessible to people with disabilities so that someone like my Dad, who is a vision impaired artist, can access and enjoy it too.
Speaking of my Dad, he drew that picture of me that you see on my Bio Page. He sent it to me this year as a Valentine card. Yeah, I cried.
I hope you like this journal addition to my web site and that you return from time to time for my latest news and ponderings. Your news and your questions are welcome at mail@Kimmiller.com. It's always nice to hear from you too.
All Good things,
Kim
