{"id":1313000,"date":"2019-07-30T11:18:39","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T17:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1809658"},"modified":"2019-07-30T11:18:39","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T17:18:39","slug":"after-a-decade-buddy-julie-miller-make-time-for-breakdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/after-a-decade-buddy-julie-miller-make-time-for-breakdown\/","title":{"rendered":"After a Decade, Buddy &amp; Julie Miller Make Time for \u2018Breakdown\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:ao:image:cmt.com:679019?width=1200&amp;height=675&amp;.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/morrise\/\" title=\"Posts by Edward Morris\" rel=\"author\">Edward Morris<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">20m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe songs just came like I had a radio station on in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s how Julie Miller recalls the process leading up to the creation of her and husband Buddy Miller\u2019s new album, <em>Breakdown on 20th Ave. South<\/em>, for which she wrote all the songs. The reference in the title is to the Nashville street on which the Millers\u2019 home and studio are located.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJulie\u2019s had some physical problems that\u2019s kept her from touring,\u201d says Buddy, \u201cand it\u2019s kind of made it difficult for us to work together.\u201d Besides touring with and producing a legion of other artists, Buddy also held down the demanding post of music producer for the <em>Nashville<\/em> TV series.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve got a nice home studio where I\u2019ve recorded a lot of people and made a lot of records,\u201d he continues. \u201cBut we recorded this one up in a little four-by-four corner of our bedroom because Julie didn\u2019t want to come down [into the main studio]. I didn\u2019t really know we were making a record. I was just recording some of her songs.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z48Fg0ZkRnk?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z48Fg0ZkRnk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>\u201cFor some reason, I was psychologically against going into the studio,\u201d Julie adds. \u201cThe last time we\u2019d been in the studio, everything had gotten too hard, too much of a big deal. So I just had to do it off the cuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Breakdown on 20th Ave. South<\/em> is the Millers\u2019 first album together since <em>Written in Chalk<\/em> in 2009. On the new project, Julie\u2019s songs are wide-ranging, a multi-hued tapestry of isolation and loneliness, thoughts on impermanence and one\u2019s place in the eyes of God, finding purpose in life, confronting indifference in love, feeling unquenchable desire, levying blame and fighting for love. It\u2019s a regular emotional yard sale.<\/p>\n<p>Her images are captivating. In the title song, she compares herself to a paper cup skittering in the wind and a baton waiting to be twirled. Elsewhere, she imagines stardust not just dispersing but coming apart. Trying to extinguish desire, she says, is as futile as \u201cspittin\u2019 on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cmYs4Nf6rvM?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cmYs4Nf6rvM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>One of the most memorable images, however, she credits to Buddy\u2019s nephew, who, when he was four years old, came up with the phrase \u201cstorm of kisses.\u201d Julie uses it as the title of a tribute to her horse-loving brother who was killed by lightning: \u201cIn a storm of kisses he did fly\/on a horse with wings up to the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems a little easier for me to write songs coming from a sad place,\u201d Julie says. \u201cBut it\u2019s usually from a sad place that I\u2019ve already been through and it\u2019s over and I\u2019m looking back at it. When I\u2019m in the middle of something, it usually doesn\u2019t come out in a song.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She didn\u2019t write and demo these songs, as is common practice. \u201cThe only way these songs even exist,\u201d she explains, \u201cis that when I\u2019d be singing them, Buddy would turn around and go, \u2018What\u2019s that!?\u2019 and come running with his cell phone and record it. I\u2019d never have remembered them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t labor over any of the songs \u2014 over the production,\u201d Buddy says. \u201cTypically what happened for maybe a third of the record is that she\u2019d wake up and have a song in her and start singing and writing it. While she was finishing it, I\u2019d be working in the corner on putting a track down. On this record, I played pretty much everything. I sent off the tracks for the drummer to play over. But other than that I played everything on it. I love playing with other musicians but I wasn\u2019t going to take them up to our bedroom.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hM7fDY1ZioY?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hM7fDY1ZioY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s clear there are autobiographical elements in some of the songs, particularly in the semi-serious, semi-whimsical \u201cEverything Is Your Fault,\u201d which boasts the finger-pointing couplet, \u201cEverything is your fault in the whole wide world\/You\u2019re the one who had to have you a crazy girl.\u201d In another song Julie asserts, \u201cYou\u2019re gonna love me even when you think you won\u2019t\/You\u2019re gonna love me even when you think you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the marriage was . . . it wasn\u2019t in jeopardy,\u201d Buddy muses, \u201cbut there was a creative tension there [from] my producing records for other people and never working with her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Julie, a bundle of feelings complicated their collaborating. \u201cI have fibromyalgia, which make me feel bad, and Buddy used to be on the road all the time. They were beautiful shows [he did], and he\u2019s so talented and loved doing them. Nevertheless I felt I was being left in isolation. I missed him so much, and I felt guilty for missing him.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CGIgDiXKv2o?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CGIgDiXKv2o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>She confesses that she uses songs as a lure to keep her husband nearby. \u201cHe\u2019s crazy about songs. He\u2019ll be leaving or something, and I\u2019ll think, \u2018Oh, I don\u2019t want him to go,\u2019 and I start making up a song and he\u2019ll stop. [She laughs in an escalating silvery peal.] Some of those made it onto the record. One of them was, \u2018I\u2019m Gonna Make You Love Me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because of Julie\u2019s poor health \u2014 she says she also suffers from depression \u2014 the Millers won\u2019t tour to support the new album. They did preview it at Nashville\u2019s City Winery in a performance Buddy describes as \u201cthe beginning and end of our world tour.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After years of musical activity, Buddy\u2019s not looking for any more projects apart from being with Julie. \u201cI think I just want to hang with her,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"description\">Edward Morris is a veteran of country music journalism. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a frequent contributor to CMT.com.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1809658\/after-a-decade-buddy-julie-miller-make-time-for-breakdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward Morris 20m ago \u201cThe songs just came like I had a radio station on in my head.\u201d That\u2019s how Julie Miller recalls the process leading up to the creation of her and husband Buddy Miller\u2019s new album, Breakdown on 20th Ave. South, for which she wrote all the songs. The reference in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1313000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 03:42:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1313000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313000\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1313000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1313000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1313000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}