Choke Cherry Tree

Choke Cherry Tree finds founding band members Ben Miller (vocals, guitar) and Scott Leeper (washtub bass, backing vocals) joined by new recruits Rachel Ammons (fiddle, vocals) and Smilin’ Bob Lewis (guitar, bass and drums). Produced by Chris Funk of The Decemberists, this injection of new blood has produced the Ben Miller Band’s most appealing recording to date. Many of the 11 tracks retain the rough-hewn, built-from-scratch aesthetic long associated with Miller’s projects; others lean toward the softer, more reflective, acoustic side. Everything benefits from a rich, full soundstage, which brings out, among other things, the peculiarly effective buzz-saw quality of Miller’s handmade slide guitar and the high-pitched, nasal, Midwestern-inflected tone of his singing voice. Standout tracks include ‘Akira Kurosawa’, a swinging gut-bucket romper with a slightly incongruous bridge, which somehow perfectly captures the quirkily accessible genius of the Japanese filmmaker’s oeuvre, and ‘Nothing Gets Me Down’, a quietly hilarious, self-effacing song about maintaining optimism in the face of innate behavioural deficiencies. A seriously cracking hoedown.