Buddy Miller [Digipak]

Buddy Miller cleared out the kitchen to make room for a drum kit. What followed is his first solo album in fifteen years — twelve songs of soul, country, early rock 'n' roll, and gospel, made with a community of friends and collaborators that spans five decades of American music.

The album opens with "As Long as I Have You," the early Temptations hit, anchored by the McCrary Sisters, who appear throughout. From there it moves through Julie Miller co-writes ("You Never Really Get Over It," "Losers' Celebration," "Masterpiece in the Sand"), a late-period Dan Penn song ("Not Enough Time to Change"), and Jesse Winchester's devastating "Lay Down the Burden of Your Heart." The guest list reads like a lifetime of earned trust: Shawn Colvin and Jim Lauderdale — both going back to Buddy's New York country band of the early '80s — stop by to sing. Dan Penn lends sly gravitas to the Smokey Robinson-penned "Don't Look Back." The War & Treaty deliver a stunning take on the Winchester track. Lee Ann Womack duets on "Stop Me." Emmylou Harris, Larry Campbell, and Teresa Williams join on the hymn-like "The Inner Sanctum of God." And "Till the Wheels Come Off" — written about Buddy and Julie's love by Ashley Monroe, Elizabeth Cook, Angaleena Presley, and Meg McRee — arrives as an act of communal devotion.

The core band (Fred Eltringham, Viktor Krauss, Tim Lauer, Steve Fishell, Fats Kaplin) plays with the understated nuance of musicians who have nothing left to prove. Five of the twelve songs are Julie Miller compositions, and the album closes on her words: "The greatest works of man are just a masterpiece in the sand."